For those people trying to get rich, yeah lots of money they lost.
And for this new idea? Its dying now. It won't completely go away though. Even a 10-20 year old video game still has a few people that play it once in a while, even though majority of people could care less.
Don't worry pal its not dying at all, if the price hits under $1 for a long time, then maybe that is like a death almost.
Even if we hit a low of $20 we are will higher than beginning of January!
We was in a bubble pure and simple, everyone was positing about the bubble popping all the time, the writing was on the wall. I expected the bubble to pop after reaching $1000 a coin but someone attacked the Gox and caused a preemptive popping of the bubble.
Remember the growth could not sustained, within a year a single Bitcoin would make you a billionaire, the rate of increase was exponential at least. If the dream of Bitcoin is that rate of increase against USD then that is a fantasy dream and could not be sustained by anything in the world ever. Even exponential adoption can only go a year before saturating every market and store on earth.
But Bitcoin will rise. Remember Bitcoin is a confidence currency, its value determined by the confidence of the sellers and buyers. Bitcoin will rise, hopefully a little slower this time!!