Bitcoin entrepreneurs bullish despite tech trouble

BERLIN — Entrepreneurs building businesses around Bitcoin say they are confident the virtual currency will survive a series of technical problems that have affected withdrawals in recent days.

Bitcoin's value dropped to about $633 early Wednesday after two big exchanges, BTC-E and Bitstamp, imposed freezes on converting it into traditional currencies.

They cited an apparent technical glitch that allowed fraudsters to flood exchanges with fake withdrawal requests. The Mt. Gox exchange stopped withdrawals last week because of the same issue.

Bitcoin experts at a conference in Berlin say the problems are unlikely to kill the cybercurrency, whose value topped $1,100 in November.

But Oliver Flaskaemper, head of virtual marketplace Bitcoin.de, warns that novices who don't fully understand the currency should still avoid investing in it.