The slight downward trend across the cryptocurrency markets that began earlier this week has turned into a more severe slide, as the price of bitcoin plunged by almost $70 (£41.20) over the course of a few hours.

While its value has somewhat recovered to around $600, the drop has caused a market-wide fall in prices, with not one of the major cryptocurrencies seeing any positive movement over the last 24 hours.

The price swing can most likely be attributed to the announcement from the US government that it is preparing to sell off 30,000 bitcoin, seized by the US Marshall Service from the online black market Silk Road.

Hacker mines £365,000 dogecoin using botnet

A dogecoin mining operation on a network of hacked computers is estimated to have hauled in around $620,496 worth of the meme-based cryptocurrency, according to a report.

Taiwanese company Synology, which specialises in something known as network-attached storage, announced the attack in February but only disclosed details on how to patch the security flaw.

Analysing the data retrieved from the operation, Dell SecureWorks has estimated that more than 300 million dogecoin was mined by the hacker.

"As cryptocurrencies continue to gain momentum, their popularity as a target for various malware will continue to rise," the report said.

US government to auction $18m worth of bitcoin

Around 30,000 bitcoin confiscated from the online black market Silk Road are to be auctioned off by the US government.

At current market prices, that equates to around $18 million, though the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency has slid considerably since the auction was announced.

The bitcoin is currently being held in two separate wallets controlled by the US Marshal Service, ready to be auctioned on 27 June.

"The bitcoins offered in this auction have been ordered forfeited to the United States," the US Marshals Service said in a statement.

Ripple gateway launches in South America

A new licensed money payment network based on the Ripple Labs payment network is to launch in seven Latin American markets.

Ripple LatAm will help facilitate international transactions throughout Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay using Ripple's technology.

"Ripple LatAm effectively opens the region for business, allowing for real-time B2B cross-border payments between markets in each partner's currency of choice," Ripple LatAm said in a statement.