Bitcoin drops more than 14% to below $7,000

Christophe Morin | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A cyclist passes the entrance to the La Maison du Bitcoin bank in Paris, France, on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017.

Bitcoin dropped Monday below $7,000 to its lowest in more than two months.

The digital currency fell 14.6 percent to $6,988.85, its lowest since Nov. 15, according to CoinDesk, whose bitcoin price index tracks prices from four major exchanges. Bitcoin recovered slightly to near $7,076 in early afternoon trading.

With Monday’s declines, bitcoin has now lost about 50 percent for the year so far.

The latest sell-off follows reports in the last week that have raised worries about increased regulation, hackers and potential price manipulation at a major cryptocurrency exchange. On Friday, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup also said they have decided to ban cryptocurrency purchases by their credit card customers.

The heads of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are also set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

Ethereum fell 17 percent to $692, according to CoinMarketCap, while ripple declined about 13.5 percent to 70.5 cents in early afternoon trading.

Bitcoin remains several hundred percent higher over the last 12 months, while ethereum and ripple are several thousands of percent higher.