Bitcoin, the controversial virtual currency, is watching its market value crumble. It has fallen to $60 this morning.

Just Wednesday, it topped $266 before a dramatic plunge sent it to $120.

Then, Thursday, Mt. Gox – the world's largest Bitcoin exchange – halted trading for 12 hours in an attempt to "cool down" the market.

When trading reopened last night, Bitcoin instantly plunged another 35% to $78.

Now, at $60, Bitcoin has lost 77% of its value from Wednesday's high.

bitcoin.clarkmoody.com

Mt. Gox has been dealing with trading lag issues in recent weeks as popularity of the virtual currency has soared.

Some of these trading lags have been caused by "distributed denial of service" attacks, wherein hackers use large groups of computers to flood a website with bogus connections, preventing legitimate users from connecting and causing the site to crash.

One analyst says hackers are doing this to force Bitcoin prices down so they can scoop them up on the cheap.

The lag that sent Bitcoin traders into a selling panic on Wednesday, according to Mt. Gox, was not the result of a DDoS attack, but was instead due to the rapid influx of new users in recent days.