For me Bitcoin represents the freedom given to regular people by the concept of Bitcoin. When it was made, Bitcoin born with this reason, to provide some sort of income, value, some money making source against the banks and the regulators from 2008 when the recession took place.
Now, as everyone says, that it needs to be regulated, partially I agree, but not by the same regulatory boards. I mean, by accepting those (the same people who laughed at simple human beings losing all their money/savings/houses in the recession) as regulators, we give another asset in their hands which can be manipulated.
I don't know that in this case, Bitcoin would lose its freedom and all the other coins, but definitely harms this value of bitcoin/alts.
What we can do? We can invest in different projects more carefully, we can set up a board of "our own" people and we now have the medium, which can provide awareness (Steem).
You can't avoid that some people may invest in some obviously fishy asset, but this is how the world runs anyway. We can't be all of us winners.