Dive Brief:

• Bitcoin’s value dropped 20% this weekend, settling to about $300 after falling to its lowest price in 2014, about $286.

• With more retailers accepting bitcoin — including Overstock, Dell, Newegg, and TigerDirect —  there is more in circulation, which can help drive down its price.

• Increasing regulation and scrutiny by states, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and other countries worldwide may also be contributing to uncertainty about the crypto-coin and its recent drop in value.

Dive Insight:

The ups and downs of bitcoin’s value is pretty much par for the course, but this underscores its existence as a commodity, like gold or orange juice futures. In fact, that could be the heart of the matter: There’s argument over whether it needs to operate as more of a currency to gain widespread adoption, and whether it should. Certainly a drop in value doesn’t help that. We’ll see when it comes to bitcoin, whether what goes down will go up. It probably needs to be somewhat steady to keep it interesting or useful to consumers.