A PARODY cryptocurrency which adopted an internet meme as its logo now has a market value of more than $1billion.

Dogecoin is currently valued at around $1.17billion –trading at $0.010360 per token – despite not having a software update for more than two years, according to CoinMarketCap.

2 Dogecoin's value has surged by more than 400 per cent in recent weeks

In December, the virtual currency’s value rose by over 400% amid the hysteria surrounding the rise in crypto-giant Bitcoin.

Dogecoin – which was introduced in 2013 and has a meme of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog as its logo – is an altcoin which are peer-to-peer digital tokens that descended from Bitcoin.

Jackson Palmer, the founder of the cryptocurrency, told Coin Desk the surge in Dogecoin speaks volumes for the current state of the altcoin market.

Palmer, who left the project in 2015, said: “I have a lot of faith in the Dogecoin Core development team to keep the software stable and secure…

2 The altcoin's current market value is more than $1billion Credit: CoinMarketCap

“…but I think it says a lot about the state of the cryptocurrency space in general that a currency with a dog on it which hasn't released a software update in over two years has a $1B+ market cap.”

There are currently more than a thousand digital currencies on the market with Bitcoin taking up 40% of the market.

Other popular atlcoins include Ethereum and Ripple – with the latter having a massive 35,000 per cent jump in value in 2017.

Dave Chapman, managing director at digital assets trading house Octagon Strategy, said the popularity of altcoins owes to a perception that Bitcoin’s value is now out of reach for ordinary buyers.

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Speaking with CNBC, he said: “The most significant contributing cause for altcoins to rise so parabolically is owing to the perception of 'cheap' coins.

"The two most well known cryptocurrencies are considered too expensive for most new entrants.

“Despite being able to purchase a fraction of each, there is a real psychological barrier around owning something in its entirety.”

Man named Satoshi Nakamoto denies he is the creator of Bitcoin

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