Zed Run: the virtual arena where digital racehorses trade for $125,000

What could possibly go wrong in a space where virtual horseracing meets cryptocurrency amid excitable talk of big returns on investment? Welcome to Zed Run, which started as a website but is growing into a complete world in which enthusiasts can keep themselves entertained and forget anything else is happening, an attraction which mirrors that of the real-life sport.

Set up in 2018, Zed Run describes itself as "a provably fair digital horse racing game". It will not be instantly accessible for anyone unfamiliar with the cryptocurrency world, thanks to its prominent use of vocabulary like "blockchain", "ethereum" or "non-fungible token" but, as with real racing, there is evidently a lot of money changing hands somewhere behind the jargon screen.

Zed Run appears to be booming, one recent report stating its user base had grown by 260 per cent in the space of just 30 days with $2 million worth of transactions taking place in that time. The game's fame was extended by an excited report in the New York Times last week which stated one digital horse had changed hands for $125,000, while a single user had disposed of his 'stable' for $252,000.