Yup. BitCoin is actually the currency, but companies conducting banking operations with it are subject to financial regulation of banks. Look at BitInstant. Dudes didn't follow financial regulations written for traditional currencies when conducting transactions, so Charlie Shrem and Robert Faiella got arrested.
That's what a lot of the money handling regulations are about. Hence why you need to declare when you're going through an airport with more than 10k of currency (USD, AUD, etc).
