Little-Known Cryptocurrency Pumps 500x in Four Days. Are Altcoins Back?
Micro-cap altcoin Opyn yCurve Insurance (OCRV) saw a monstrous surge last week, evoking reminders from bygone eras of the cryptoasset industry.
Between May 19 and May 23, cryptocurrency price trackers registered a price jump from $0.0055 to $2.84—or about 500x—on OCRV. The cryptocurrency appears to only be trading on the decentralized exchange Uniswap.
So $ocDAI just did a 5x today and it’s not because @compoundfinance is getting hacked..
4chan discovered it and decided it was a low cap DeFi coin without even reading what the token is for ☠️
Want to make money off 4chan? ?
Go sell some $ocDAI on https://t.co/NAnQGMjPhP pic.twitter.com/Kxie24lOr8
— Daryl Lau (@Daryllautk) May 18, 2020
The unreal price fluctuation seems to have been caused by “shilling” of the coin on 4chan. OCRV itself is a token powering the Opyn platform’s DeFi insurance system.
Altcoins Return?
Such dramatic events in the altcoin space may be signalling strength in the alt market. Generally speaking, high levels of investment in altcoins signals increased risk-taking in the crypto markets, and is a sign of confidence.
We have seen a general increase in altcoin market share since about September 2019, depicted above. This trend took a big hit in February and March of 2020, as the coronavirus spread around the globe and hit financial markets—including crypto markets.
In a general sense, the trend seems to have remained intact, consistently rising from 5 to 8% in the six months depicted. The flip side is Bitcoin’s dominance, which if rising signals a reluctance for risk taking (and often a falling Bitcoin price). This had been consistently ebbing since last September, but now seems stuck in the mid-60s.
In a decimated global economy, nobody quite knows what to expect from the cryptoasset industry. With some hints of altcoin strength, though, the prospects remain interesting.
Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com