There Are Now At Least 14 Digital Currencies Worth More Than $1

Bitcoin prices on the Mt. Gox exchange have climbed back up to $800. Litecoin, which bills itself as the "silver" to Bitcoin's gold and is often accepted by retailers taking Bitcoin, surpassed $1 months ago and now stands at $24.

But many lesser-known currencies have broken through the $1 threshold.

While Litecoin has the second-largest market cap behind Bitcoin, it is Mastercoin, a cryptocurrency created in October that integrates with Bitcoin's core protocol to make it safer as well as more flexible, that is now the second-most-valuable alt-coin. One Mastercoin is now worth $180.25.

Next up is Bitbar, an alternative currency initially created to be "ultra rare" and thus climb in value with the goal of drawing attention to the digital currency world. One Bitbar is now worth $44, though the project seems to have gone dormant.

For all the press its recently received, Dogecoin fails to make this list, its value stuck at $ 0.00045.

Anyway, each of the ones worth more than $1 have thus climbed in value for their own intrinsic reasons. They also remain extremely volatile, and there's no way of telling which ones will see breakout surges or collapses.

But it shows that society is starting to place intrinsic value in the concept of a digital currency - providing some context for this weekend's digital currency debate between Paul Krugman and Brad De Long.

Full list:

Bitcoin: ~$800 (Mt. Gox price)

Mastercoin: $180.25

Bitbar: $44

Litecoin: $24.15

Protoshares: $19.59

Novacoin: $13.72

Unobtanium: $6.30

Namecoin: $5

Anoncoin: $4.61

Peercoin: $4.28

Primecoin: $2.68

Franko: $2.31

Cryptogenic Bullion: $2.21

Diamond: $2.20