Key Takeaways
- Omicron (OMIC), a little known cryptocurrency project, has soared over 400% in one week.
- The cryptocurrency shares the name with the latest Covid 19 variant found in South Africa.
- Omicron DAO protocol is built on the Arbitrum network.
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) – The price of the Omicron (OMIC) token has skyrocketed over 400% in the past week. The reason? It shares the same name as the latest Covid19 variant.
According to the data available on CoinMarketCap, the little-known token rallied from just $47.89 on Nov 19 to an all-time high of $692 today. Unfortunately, investors later began cashing out that caused OMIC to shed 50% of its price. It currently trades at $315, still 560% more than its all-time low just ten days ago.
Another tracking website, Crypto.com, places the coin’s all-time high at an astounding $711.
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What’s with the Omicron news?
Last Friday, the cryptocurrency markets faced turbulence when the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a new Covid 19 variant. Interestingly, the organization named the newly detected B.1.1.529 as Omicron.
According to an announcement by WHO, they received the first report on Omicron from South Africa on Nov 24, 2021.
“This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs. The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa,”
WHO announced.
Since then, several countries have reported cases of the new variant within their jurisdiction within days. According to reports, France, Belgium, and Germany were among the first European nations to detect the virus.
The United Kingdom soon followed suit, with health secretary Sajid Javid confirming cases in Nottingham and Essex.
In addition, the UK added Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Angola to the red travel list.
Countries including Israel and India have also come up with new arrival guidelines for those returning from infected countries. However, while the world gears up to fight the Omicron virus, the token has a great week.
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Buying Omicron for the heck of it
There isn’t one particular good reason one can highlight to buy Omicron (OMIC).
The token traded moderately, mostly away from the hype other tokens were experiencing. However, its sudden surge should come as no surprise, given how many meme coins have made bull runs on something as random as a tweet by Elon Musk.
Squid Game Token, which soared owing to the popularity of the Netflix series with the same name, is another example.
Omicron’s catapult has been its lucky name. Backed by several other cryptocurrencies, including the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin and liquidity provider tokens, the token operates on the Ethereum layer two network Arbitrum. Additionally, the only option where one can trade OMIC is the SushiSwap decentralized exchange.
Hence, buying OMIC has been just another way to have fun in the meme market for some.
As luck would have it for Omicron, they had the name long before the new variant of Covid 19 came along. But while the world grapples with the virus and international flights get canceled, Omicron DAO is reaping the benefits. We hope whoever came up with the name in the company gets a raise.
To those at Omicron DAO, every cloud has a silver lining.
