Omicron Cryptocurrency sees 900% surge days after new COVID variant emerges with same name

Omicron (OMIC), a relatively unknown cryptocurrency, has risen to an all-time high today after a new fast-spreading COVID-19 variation was given the same name. During the Monday morning Asian trading session, Omicron's OMIC token reached an all-time high of $689. The move has increased the token's value by another 200% on the day and by a stunning 945 % since Saturday when it was trading around $65.

The token is named after a COVID-19 variant that was found on November 23 in South Africa. The fast-spreading B.1.1.529 strain was named after the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet by the World Health Organization. The big price surge is receiving mixed responses from crypto critics on Twitter.

Omicron Crypto OMIC sees 900% surge after new COVID variant emerges

On the Ethereum layer two network Arbitrum, Omicron is a decentralised reserve money system. The USDC stablecoin and liquidity provider tokens are among the crypto assets backing its native OMIC token. It can only be exchanged on the SushiSwap decentralised exchange, which according to CoinGecko has had $454,000 in trading for the OMIC/USDC pair in the last 24 hours. There are no additional statistics on OMIC supply or market cap on the token analytics website.

Why is omicron omic going up?

The bond-based yield farming project originated as a fork of the OlympusDAO DeFi protocol in early November, but it has no more ties to the virus except the name. The news of the new COVID variation spread sent stock markets tumbling late last week, and Black Friday saw a big sell-off that wiped away November gains for the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite. However, as the new week begins, things are looking up, with crypto markets back in the black at the time of writing, after plummeting to their lowest levels since mid-October on Saturday. According to CoinGecko, total market value has increased by 5.6% in the last 24 hours to $2.71 trillion.

Omicron covid variant emerged in South Africa 

On November 24, 2021, the B.1.1.529 variant was initially reported to WHO by South Africa. In South Africa, the epidemiological situation has been marked by three different peaks in reported cases, the most recent of which was dominated by the Delta strain. Infections have risen sharply in recent weeks, corresponding with the discovery of the B.1.1.529 strain. A specimen collected on November 9, 2021, was the first reported verified B.1.1.529 infection. There are numerous mutations in this variation, some of which are problematic. In comparison to other VOCs, preliminary research suggests that this variation has a higher risk of reinfection. In nearly all of South Africa's provinces, the number of occurrences with this variation appears to be increasing. This variation is still detected by current SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostics.

(IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK)