While most cryptocurrencies are crashing today – one remains triumphant.

Dogecoin has managed to combine two things that are huge right now – virtual currencies and the Doge meme.

News that Bitcoin has been hit by fresh regulation in China has seen millions wiped off the market capitalisation of more established currencies, but Dogecoin is currently up by over 30 per cent today.

At around $0.0003 per Dogecoin, the market capitalisation of the meme-based currency stands at over $2.6m according to coinmarketcap.com. It was created less than two weeks ago, and is already the 15th most valuable coin around (by market capitalisation).

Very crypto

Like the most famous virtual currency – Bitcoin – this rival is also a cryptocurrency. That makes them hard to counterfeit (any newly created Dogecoin have to be verified as legitimate by others who use the currency).

Such freedom

Most virtual currencies can't be taxed or traced, making them very attractive for things like international transfers. Traditional state controlled currencies often require the payment of hefty fees in order to transfer them across borders.

So distributed

There is no central authority that can control Dogecoin, and its finite supply means that no-one can inflate away its value by printing more. Of course, that does mean that no adjustments can be made for variations in demand.

Wow

The features above don't mark out the Dogecoin – its uniqueness is its being a pure creation of the internet.

It is an amalgamation of the funny and the novel, and with such low volumes of trading involved, those factors are enough for even small purchases to greatly influence the value of the altcoin.