Without regulation of Bitcoin, consumers have no protection in a Bitcoin economy. The virtual currency continues to result in swindles, with little prospect of a crackdown.
Questions:
1. What is a pump-and-dump scheme?
2. What event(s) sent Bitcoin’s price tumbling?
3. In the U.S., the SEC has not ruled that Bitcoin is a security. However, they have punished what type of fraud using Bitcoin?

Sarah Meiklejohn, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, who researches the Bitcoin economy.
Source:
Popper, N. (2013). In the murky world of bitcoin, fraud is quicker than the law. The New York Times, Dec. 5 (Retrievable online at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/in-the-murky-world-of-bitcoin-fraud-is-quicker-than-the-law/?hp)