Mt. Gox might have had their situation, but the loss in reputation is not that bad. The price might be about 30 USD higher or something around that ballpark
I think that the price today without MTgox would be $2-$120 range.
the willy bot made all the speculators jump in and send it to $1000. Since then slowly those that bought in at high prices have sold off at losses and got out. hence the price going down to $200-$300 where it is being held by a few big market players.
it would go a lot lower if they did not intervene every time it goes below $200.
I think the longer term is still good for bitcoin and while I see buying more bitcoins at $200-$300 is currently overpriced I see the price going up about 2.2 times per annum since the $2 bottom so in a year or two the price might well be more "naturally" in the $200-$300 range so longer term holders will do well. (assuming we do not have another crash to about $60 which is what I see is todays equivalent to the $2 bottom - if that happens in may be some years before we get back to $200-$300.
AS another poster said bitcoins big selling point is that it is "sound money". That takes several steps of understanding for the average person to get that as fiat (and for protection gold) work well for them. I read recently an article that listed uber, airb&B and bitcoin all together as "disruptive' technologies.
But that is misleading in a way as the first two are at their heart cheaper alternatives ( taxis and hotel rooms) so they are easily grasped by people and have taken off. Seeing the need to get some "sound money" is much more complex. It is sort of "insurance' in case the system starts to collapse. But you need to know how easily the system can collapse to be motivated enough to get some of your savings into bitcoin.
Its a long road but time is on bitcoins side - gold was not rushed to get where it is
