Image used with permission by copyright holderThis is just getting ridiculous. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin alternative Dogecoin – a meme-based digital currency apparently created as a joke – jumped more than 300 percent in value, rising from $0.00026 on Wednesday morning to $0.00095 per Dogecoin, as of 8am ET Thursday morning. That’s the greatest increase of any so-called altcoin over the same period. (Wow. Such currency!)

　　Update: Dogecoin didn’t stop at 300 percent. A few hours later into Thursday, and it’s now up more than 400 percent.

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　　Dogecoin saw a momentary boost of around 360 percent before settling down a bit to just 315 percent. The current total market value of all Dogecoins in circulation is $8,776,590. The value increase has also boosted Dogecoin into the top 10 digital currencies on the market, launching it above Primecoin and Nxt, two popular Bitcoin alternatives.

　　The Dogecoin rally began early Wednesday, when the crytpocurrency escaped the downward spiral of Bitcoin (and virtually every other digital currency), which temporarily crashed to less than $500 following a crackdown by China’s central bank. The digital currency markets have since recovered from that blow, with Bitcoin jumping back up to around $670, at the time of this writing. Nearly all of the top 50 altcoins saw similar rebounds along side Bitcoin.

　　In addition to Dogecoin’s absurd value increase, the digital currency was also added to a new exchange, Cryptsy, bring the total number of exchanges that allow Dogecoin trades to three. The other exchanges include COINS-E and Coined Up. You can also purchase Dogecoin on eBay, where the going price for a batch of the currency ranges wildly, from around $0.0019 per Dogecoin, which is steep, to $0.00071, which is below current market value.

　　Dogecoin, for those of you wondering what the heck we’re talking about here, launched earlier this month. It is based on the “Doge” Internet meme, created on the 4chan forums, which generally features a Shiba Inu dog, and often includes an inner monologue of half-thoughts, for example:

　　Image used with permission by copyright holderIf you’re not into the whole digital currency craze, then Dogecoin is probably not your thing. (And nobody’s going to blame you for not wanting to toss your real-life money into an extremely volatile virtual currency market.) But after browsing the postings of sheer joy found on Reddit’s Dogecoin community, it’s hard to not want to toss in a few bucks and see where this silly train is headed.

　　[Image via Axon350/Reddit/Imgur]