First there was bitcoin, then bitcoin cash — and now there's bitcoin gold.

A new iteration of the cryptocurrency has been formed after some developers split the blockchain, the digitized ledger on which the bitcoin is based. Called bitcoin gold, the offshoot comes less than three months after bitcoin cash was created.

Bitcoin dropped 3.6 percent to $5,699 as of 4:41 p.m. in Hong Kong, paring a drop of as much as 5.9 percent. The cryptocurrency is still up 37 percent this month and 499 percent this year.