Regulator Examines Bitcoin Practices

How is it futile? Bitcoin exchanges and related services do all their business in broad daylight, which makes their business much smoother. If Bitcoin exchanges were black market services they would be forced to charge much higher fees (due to the higher risk) and their business would suffer. There would also be substantial damage to Bitcoin's perceived legitimacy if exchanging Bitcoin money for USD involved dealing with criminals.

The truth is that Bitcoin would be a toy if there were no exchanges. Regulating Bitcoin can be reduced to regulating exchanges, and the government knows how to deal with that sort of business. You are talking about a couple dozen currency exchange businesses; this is not at all difficult for the government to regulate. Even offshore exchanges would have trouble doing business in the US if they failed to comply with regulations; many world governments cooperate with the US government on that sort of law.