The court effectively found that, even though virtual currency isn't real and is infinite in supply, it still can deserve legal protection in the same way as real world currency.
I am not sure whether I would favor legal protection of virtual stuff. In what respect does bitcoin, or the whole internet differ from a game like EVE online? Imagine that game goodies get protected by law. Right now I suppose that entering a game would be considered like entering a boxing ring... how does bitcoin differ?
Contracts should be supported by law, but not protected by the state because that would be protection-socialism. That is externalizing the costs of protection of property to the taxpayer.
When you go onto the internet there is always an implicit social contract that says what you can and cannot do on the internet, while this should be totally up to the internet provider who is sending you the bits.
Right now, the only way to setup a stateless domain on the internet, where your local state law has nothing to say, is through hard encryption like tor. Can this not be made easier by treating part of the internet legally as a game?
