...and despite that mist of DRKness surrounding the coin, it was ahead of both Vert + Max before the ccex incident.

It all has to do with the fundamentals. You go over the list of coins and they're all junk with very few exceptions like DRK. This alone attracts the attention of the right BTC holders. If people want to make a quick buck there is a ton of those shitcoins out there to pump and dump. Hype attracts the second type of crowd which is like the guy who was "oh it's droppiiiiiiing" and getting disappointed. Apparently there are plenty of coins that rise every single day -guaranteed- for like months, and which can sustain drops in value despite fracked up situations with exchanges (cough, Bitcoin, cough) so I figure he's heading for them