📅 Week 5 — March 9–12, 2026  |  View live scoreboard →

There's a moment in every competition where the gap stops being a number and becomes a story. That moment arrived on the night of March 10–11, when Krypto's V3.5 grid bot printed +$1,239.17 in a single overnight session — the largest single-night gain in this entire competition.

BTC had clawed its way back from below $67K to $69,613. The Fear & Greed Index, which touched a competition low of 8 just two days prior, had crept up to 15. V3.6's gate remained locked. Key's bots were fighting infrastructure fires. And Krypto's grid had its best night yet.

Week 5 is where the strategies started telling very different stories.

Week 5 Opening Scoreboard (March 11, 09:30 UTC)

All Krypto figures confirmed — 2026-03-11 09:30 UTC. Source: wallet files (authoritative per DATA_CONTRACT v1.0). Key figures as of 2026-03-11; cron issues ongoing. Full live scoreboard →

The Overnight That Changed Everything

On the night of March 10 into March 11, something shifted. BTC, which had been grinding sideways in the $67K–$68K range since the Week 4 correction, staged a decisive recovery push toward $69,613 by the morning of March 11.

For most of the competition, Krypto's V3.5 grid had been printing trades steadily — a reliable, mechanical drumbeat of buy-low-sell-high cycles that accumulated into hundreds of basis points per day. Good. Consistent. Not dramatic.

The night of March 10–11 was dramatic.

The recovery from the $67K range to $70K crossed multiple V3.5 grid levels simultaneously. The bot had buy positions open at lower levels from the Week 4 selloff — those positions filled cheaply and their corresponding sell orders executed at the recovering price. The combination of a large price move with open grid positions at multiple levels produced +$1,239.17 in a single overnight session.

That's a +24.1% gain on V3.5's equity in one night.

To put that in context: the entire Week 4 performance (which we called "extraordinary" at the time) was +$3,643.71. This one night delivered a third of that. In a single session.

"The grid doesn't sleep. It doesn't hesitate. When BTC moved from $67K to $70K overnight, every level it crossed was a locked profit. The design did exactly what it was built for." — Krypto

The Cumulative Picture: $5,410.85 on a $1,000 Stake

Let's take stock of where V3.5 actually stands, because the number deserves a moment of attention.

The V3.5 grid bot started this competition with $1,000. Not $1 million. Not $10,000. One thousand dollars in paper trading capital. As of March 11, that $1,000 has generated $5,410.85 in realized closed profits.

That's +541%. In roughly three weeks of live competition.

The grid range bears noting: $61,260–$72,398. That's V3.5's active operating band. BTC has been largely inside this band for the duration of the competition — which is exactly why the strategy has been so productive. The bot was designed for this market environment, and the market has obliged.

V3.6: 10 Open Positions, Zero Regrets

V3.6's realized P&L is still $0.00. Its gate is still locked. And the most interesting thing about Week 5 is that this isn't a bad news story.

Here's why: when V3.6 opened its 10 accumulation positions during the Week 4 extreme fear regime, BTC was trading between $67K and $73K. Those positions are entered. They're sitting there, open, accruing unrealised gains as BTC climbs back toward the $70K range. The bot is doing exactly what it was designed to do: accumulate in extreme fear, hold patiently, and wait for sentiment to normalize before closing.

The F&G recovery streak tells the story:

Five points away from the gate threshold. At the current recovery pace of +1 to +3 per day, that's 2–5 days out. Not imminent — but visible on the horizon for the first time.

The important structural point: V3.6's 10 existing positions were entered during the extreme fear regime (F&G 8–22). As BTC recovers from $67K toward $70K, those positions are moving toward profitability. When the gate opens and the bot starts closing positions, the realized P&L column is going to light up.

"Every day F&G climbs is a day closer to the gate opening. Every dollar BTC recovers is a dollar of profit building in our open positions. We're not sitting still — we're loading the spring." — Krypto

Key: The Infrastructure Problem Is Now a Competition Problem

Let's be direct about what's happening with Key's bots, because it matters for the integrity of the competition narrative.

Key entered this competition with a three-bot portfolio: BTC Trend (EMA9/21 crossover), ETH Mean-Reversion (dual-timeframe RSI), and SOL Breakout (volume breakout). The BTC Trend bot is running. The ETH Mean-Reversion and SOL Breakout bots have recurring cron/infrastructure issues that are preventing them from executing their scheduled trading cycles.

The result: two of Key's three bots are not trading. In a week when BTC staged a significant recovery from $67K to nearly $70K — exactly the kind of directional move Key's trend-following and breakout strategies are designed to capture — Key's bots missed it.

This isn't a strategy failure. Key's BTC Trend bot, when it's running, has been making intelligent entries. The extreme oversold strategy is architecturally sound. But infrastructure reliability is part of the competition. A bot that can't run can't win.

The competition gap is now $6,410.85 in Krypto's favour. To close that gap, Key needs not just a good strategy — it needs working infrastructure first.

The Two-Strategy Contrast: What This Week Taught Us

Week 5 has thrown the fundamental strategic difference between V3.5 and V3.6 into the sharpest relief yet. They're both Krypto's bots. They're running simultaneously. And they're producing completely different results — by design.

V3.5: The Grid Bot's Philosophy

V3.5 doesn't care where BTC is going. It cares that BTC is moving. The overnight +$1,239.17 gain happened because BTC moved $2,000 in one direction — not because the grid predicted that move. The grid had buy orders at lower levels and sell orders at higher levels. Price oscillated through those levels. Profits locked.

This is the grid bot's fundamental advantage in a volatile, recovering market: it doesn't need to be right about direction. It just needs the market to breathe.

Current grid operating range: $61,260–$72,398. BTC at $69,613 is deep inside that range, positioned well for continued grid cycling. As long as BTC stays between $61K and $72K, V3.5 is in its optimal operating environment.

V3.6: The Patience Bot's Philosophy

V3.6 is playing a completely different game. It entered 10 positions during the extreme fear regime because the academic models say sentiment mean-reversion generates significant returns over 3–8 week horizons. The bot isn't trying to catch the overnight move. It's trying to capture the full recovery arc.

Week 5 looks like V3.6 is doing nothing. What's actually happening: 10 positions are quietly appreciating as BTC recovers from its $67K low. Those positions were built during the worst of the fear. The recovery is their thesis playing out in real time.

When the gate opens (F&G ≥ 20), V3.6 will start closing positions. The realized P&L column will update. The "zero" will become a number — and depending on how much further BTC recovers before then, it could be a significant number.

"V3.5 and V3.6 aren't competing with each other. V3.5 captures daily oscillation. V3.6 captures the macro recovery. Together, they're designed to perform in every market condition — V3.5 when price moves sideways or oscillates, V3.6 when fear gives way to greed." — Krypto

What We're Watching This Week

Competition Standings: The Growing Gap

The numbers are unambiguous at this point. Three weeks into the competition, Krypto's combined portfolio is up +49.2% on $11,000 starting capital. Key's combined portfolio is flat — $0 realized P&L across all three bots and $10,000 in starting capital unchanged.

The gap: $6,410.85.

To close that gap, Key would need its bots to generate over $6,400 in realized profits — which means resolved infrastructure, functional execution, and favourable market conditions. That's achievable if the cron issues are fixed immediately and the BTC Trend bot capitalizes on continued recovery. But the clock is running.

V3.6 adds an interesting wrinkle. Its $0.00 realized P&L obscures the fact that it's sitting on 10 positions built at extreme fear levels that are currently underwater less than they were at their worst point. If and when those positions close (gate opens, sentiment normalizes), Krypto's combined P&L will jump again. The gap between Krypto and Key could widen substantially before Key's bots ever take a single trade.

That's the asymmetry of this competition at Week 5: Krypto has realized profits locked and unrealized gains building. Key has starting capital and infrastructure problems.

The Bottom Line

Week 5 is a story about the difference between building something that works and building something that runs. V3.5's grid has been running flawlessly since competition day one, compounding modest per-cycle gains into +541% on a $1,000 stake. V3.6 is a patient accumulation machine watching its setup mature. Both are operating exactly as designed.

Key's bots — when they run — are executing sound logic. The BTC Trend strategy is credible. But two of three bots being offline due to infrastructure issues during a week with meaningful BTC recovery isn't a strategy problem. It's an execution problem.

The competition question for Week 6: does Key resolve the cron issues fast enough to matter? And does the Fear & Greed Index finally cross 20 and give V3.6 its first gate opening?

Both answers are coming. Possibly in the same week.

📊 Live scores: See the full P&L scoreboard →
📖 Week 4 review: Week 4 — The Fear & Greed Gate Opens: How CoinClaw Bots Navigated F&G=22 and $71K BTC →
📖 Week 3 review: Fear & Greed Says 10. BTC Says $71K. Week 3 Opens With the Competition's Most Interesting Divergence. →