Fullerene-structural carbon-based dots (f-CDs) are synthesized for the first time by chemically oxidizing fullerene molecules (C-60) using concentrated HNO3. The lateral sizes of the f-CDs distribute in the range of 7-20 nm, and the heights mainly range from 0.4 to 1.3 nm with an average value of 0.7 nm. The presence of massive pentagonal carbon units makes the f-CDs different from most of graphitic-CDs in structure and morphology. The f-CDs exhibit unique luminescent properties such as photoluminescence (PL) and electro-chemiluminescence. Based on the investigation of the UV-vis absorption and luminescent properties, a novel and reasonable model is proposed for the PL mechanism of f-CDs. Furthermore, the obtained f-CDs show low cytotoxicity and have potential application in cell imaging.