The emergence of the new variant of the coronavirus, called Omicron, alerted markets at the end of last week. As a result, both stock exchanges and cryptocurrencies registered heavy losses due to the risk of further contamination and death.
However, one token has benefited from this move: the Omicron (OMIC). This Monday (29), the token reached 137% and surpassed R$ 1,900. However, the valuation has reached more than 900% since November 17, when the OMIC reached its historic low.
This new appreciation is the result of a common factor in the cryptocurrency market: the coincidence of names. Both OMIC and the coronavirus variant have the same name: Omicron.
Therefore, the new variant may have contributed to the valuation. According to CoinGecko, the price of the OMIC operated in the region of R$ 368 Until the 27th. When the warning about the Omicron variant came to the world, the price of the token soared.
about the token
The OMIC token is a decentralized reserve currency protocol that operates on the Arbitrum network. This token is backed by an asset basket. It came about through a fork in OlympusDAO, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project.
Launched earlier this month, OMIC has nothing to do with the coronavirus variant except the name. In fact, the project’s white paper makes no mention of the virus in its documentation and its name was given before the World Health Organization (WHO) discovered and named the new variant.
In other words, the project also failed to take advantage of the fear of the new variant to gain prominence. OMIC ranks a long way off in the 3,420th position on CoinMarketCap and is not traded on any major exchange. Its volume increased 81% and exceeded R$3.4 billion.
one more coincidence
It is not the first time that a coincidence of names has caused expressive valuations in cryptocurrencies. Dog cryptocurrencies perform these movements constantly.
For example, Floki Inu (FLOKI) even doubled in price in September after billionaire Elon Musk published a photo of his dog of the same breed. More recently, the StarLink cryptocurrency (STARL) has also gained in value after SpaceX launched its satellite network of the same name.
Usually, these are cryptocurrencies whose position and market value are not very relevant, which makes manipulations easier. After the strong appreciation, the price eventually tends to correct with the same intensity.
As of the writing of this text, the OMIC still accumulates an appreciation of 76% and its price operates at R$ 3,380.
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