A cryptocurrency named 'Omicron' is soaring in the digital market
A new coin with the same name as the Omicron COVID-19 variant is making waves in the cryptocurrency world.
The Omicron coin ($OMIC) was introduced in the cryptocurrency analysis site CoinGecko on Nov. 8, with a Telegram group of the same name established the following day on Nov. 9.
Notably, the new COVID-19 variant was detected in South Africa on Nov. 23. The variant was then only named Omicron by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Nov. 26.
"Omicron" is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ο), following WHO's policy to label key COVID-19 variants as Greek alphabets to avoid stigmatization in the countries they were detected.
OMIC has since shot up to over 900% along with the worldwide use of the variant. Per CoinGecko, the coin hit an all-time high on Nov. 29 at over $600 (P33,041), right around the time Omicron became widely known as a “variant of concern.”
The COVID strain has been dubbed by WHO as a "highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations... some of which are concerning and may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility."
"The likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high," the health agency cautioned in a technical note.
As of writing, the OMIC coin has been experiencing a plateau of around $214 (P10,000) apiece.
Though it sounds like an exciting investment, experts suggest caution when before attempt to invest on trendy digital currencies. One such example is the "Squid Game" ($SQID) currency, which turned out to be a scam and saw its developers run off with $2M after pulling the rug on investors.