Bitcoin drops to $60,000 for 1st time in 6 weeks

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Bitcoin's price on Monday plummeted to $60,000 for the first time in six weeks, while the cryptocurrency market is going through a major selloff.

The price of Bitcoin dove to as low as $60,657 at 12.06 p.m. EDT, while it was trading just above $61,000 for a daily loss of 4.8% at 12.26 p.m. EDT in Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange platform.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, last saw its price drop to as low as $60,650 on May 12.

Ethereum, meanwhile, was down 5.5% to $3,285 at the time, while some altcoins saw their prices decline more than 10% for the day.

The value of the cryptocurrency market stood at $2.23 trillion with a 4.5% daily loss, while Bitcoin's share, known as dominance, was at 53.8% and Ethereum's was at 18%, according to CoinMarketCap, a digital asset price-tracking website.

The major selloff in digital assets started last week after the German government sent 6,500 Bitcoin worth $425 million to crypto exchanges on Wednesday, following a seizure of 50,000 BTC in January -- the biggest crypto seizure in the country.

In addition, the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox announced earlier Monday it will begin in July to distribute digital assets stolen from its clients in a hacking event in 2014, which added downward pressure on the price of Bitcoin.