Tom Wilson

LONDON (Reuters – Global markets crashed last week after news of the Omicron Coronavirus variant was announced. One cryptocurrency named the same rose following the introduction of the Greek letter to the investor lexicon.

Price of the obscure cryptocurrency token, with just 1,000 followers on Twitter (NYSE), jumped almost 10 times between Friday and Monday, hitting $688. It then tumbled as low as 75%, according to CoinGecko.

Omicron, the token described by its website as “a decentralized Treasury-backed currency protocol”, was traded at around $371 GMT at 1435 GMT. The token was trading at about $371 GMT on Thursday, and it was approximately $65.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Friday’s new COVID-19 variant Omicron was named. It said that as more cases are reported, it has a very high global risk of surges. However, scientists warn it may take several weeks for them to fully understand it.

On Friday, the Dow dropped by over 8%. This was due to investors abandoning stocks and other more risky assets for perceived safer havens such as the dollar. Global markets have gained some calm and the stock market has almost recovered all its losses.

Minor cryptocurrencies, such as “squidgame” and dogecoin have had this year’s benefit from linking to memes or internet culture. They record rapid booms, busts, while mainstream names like bitcoin rise in popularity.

The exact date of the Omicron token launch was unclear. While data on the price of Omicron token at CoinGecko wasn’t available until November 8, data from Telegram under OmicDAO had been launched one day prior.

Reuters couldn’t reach Omicron to comment.