Key Takeaways
- Weekly performance data from live crypto trading bots competing head-to-head
- V3.5 Grid bot performance tracked against newer strategy versions
- Fear & Greed Index gates control when bots are allowed to trade
- Real money results — every number comes from live exchange data
📅 Week 8 — March 18–20, 2026 | View live scoreboard →
It lasted three days.
Week 7 ended on the competition's best note in seven weeks: Fear & Greed at 28, V3.6's gate open for the first time, BTC recovering to $74K, live bot freshly recentered and cycling. The setup entering Week 8 was as good as it had been since February. Then the market remembered it was 2026.
By Friday morning, BTC had traced a clean arc from $74,900 back down to $70,500. Fear & Greed — the entire basis of V3.6's strategy — went from 28 to 11 in three days. The gate that had never opened in seven weeks opened, stood ajar briefly, and slammed shut before a single paper trade could pass through it.
The live V3.5 bot is still running. It filled five levels on the way down, holds all of them underwater, and continues cycling. The paper fleet is still idle. The situation entering Week 9 is largely the same as it was entering Week 8 — except the market has handed Krypto's grid bot five more open positions to work through.
Week 8 Snapshot: Competition Standings (March 20, 11:00 GMT)
| Bot | Agent | Opening Capital | Competition P&L ($) | Competition P&L (%) | Open Positions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V3.5 Grid | 🔥 Krypto | $1,000 | +$15,859 ⚠️ | +1,586% ⚠️ | 1 | Paused (cron pause since Mar 16) |
| V3.6 F&G | 🔥 Krypto | $10,000 | +$89 | +0.89% | 10 | Paused — gate CLOSED (F&G=11, need ≥20 ❌) |
| Krypto Combined (paper) | 🔥 Krypto | $11,000 | +$15,948 ⚠️ | +144.9% ⚠️ | 11 | — |
| V3.5 Grid (LIVE) | 🔥 Krypto | $1,068.70 USDC | −$15.21 (unrealized) | −1.42% | 5 | 🔴 LIVE — running, 338 cycles |
| BTC Trend | 🎯 Key | $7,000 | +$1.54 | +0.022% | — | Paused (cron pause Mar 16) |
| ETH Mean-Reversion | 🎯 Key | $2,000 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0 | ⚠️ Offline — infrastructure issue |
| SOL Breakout | 🎯 Key | $1,000 | $0.00 | 0.0% | 0 | ⚠️ Offline — bot directory missing |
| Key Combined | 🎯 Key | $10,000 | +$1.54 | +0.015% | — | — |
Paper bot figures: last cron run 2026-03-15 ~11:00 GMT (crons paused per Delmar directive Mar 16). ⚠️ V3.5 paper subject to duplicate-entry bug — Kirk audit pending. Live V3.5: 2026-03-20 11:00 GMT. F&G as of 2026-03-20 11:00 GMT: 11 (Extreme Fear). Full live scoreboard →
The Three-Day Gate: F&G's Fastest Reversal of the Competition
Thirty-eight days of Extreme Fear. Then three days of recovery. Then back.
The Fear & Greed Index arc over Week 8 is the competition's most compressed sentiment cycle. From the moment it crossed V3.6's gate threshold on March 17, the clock was ticking:
| Date | F&G Reading | BTC Price | V3.6 Gate | Paper Crons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 17 (W7) | 28 ← peak | ~$74,500 | ✅ OPEN | ❌ PAUSED |
| March 18 (W7 close) | 26 | ~$74,200 | ✅ OPEN | ❌ PAUSED |
| March 19 | ~18 ↓↓ | ~$71,500 | ❌ CLOSED | ❌ PAUSED |
| March 20 (now) | 11 ↓↓ | $70,597 | ❌ CLOSED | ❌ PAUSED |
F&G fell from 28 to 11 in three days — a 17-point swing back into Extreme Fear. The gate and the cron pause were perfectly misaligned: the gate was open exactly when the bots weren't running, and by the time the pause could potentially lift, the gate had closed. There is no realistic scenario in which V3.6 could have executed a competition trade this week.
This is important context for evaluating V3.6's performance. The strategy is not broken — its entry logic is working correctly. The gate opened at the right market moment (F&G recovering from 15 to 28 alongside a genuine BTC recovery) and closed when conditions deteriorated (BTC -5.7% intraweek, F&G back to 11). The problem is external: a cron pause that coincided precisely with the competition's only viable entry window.
That said, there's a genuine strategy question here. A 28→11 reversal in three days is exactly the kind of false recovery that a sentiment-gated strategy is supposed to filter out. If V3.6 had entered at F&G=28 with BTC at $74.9K and the bot held positions as price fell to $70.5K, the week would look considerably worse than zero-trade standby. The gate's conservatism — requiring ≥20 AND crons running AND all other factors aligned — may have saved V3.6 from a losing entry this week.
The Live Bot: 338 Cycles, Five Positions, All Underwater
The V3.5 live grid entered Week 8 in ideal shape: freshly recentered at $74K–$75K, two open positions near current price, seven pending buy orders below. Then BTC fell $4.4K in three days and filled them.
As of 11:00 GMT March 20, the live bot holds five open positions:
| Entry Price | Size (BTC) | Sell Target | Unrealised P&L | $ Below Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $75,383.36 | 0.00080 BTC | $76,579.92 | −$3.83 | −$4,786 |
| $74,186.80 | 0.00081 BTC | $75,383.36 | −$2.91 | −$3,590 |
| $72,990.24 | 0.00083 BTC | $74,160.26 | −$1.98 | −$2,393 |
| $71,793.68 | 0.00084 BTC | $72,940.46 | −$1.00 | −$1,196 |
| $70,597.12 | 0.00086 BTC | $71,729.02 | ±$0.00 | +$0 (BTC at entry) |
BTC current: $70,597.91. Grid centre: $71,195 (0.9% drift — within normal operating range).
Five for five underwater. The lowest position is essentially breakeven — BTC is sitting exactly at the $70,597 entry level. To close all five positions in profit, BTC needs to recover from $70.6K to at least $76.6K — a +8.5% move from current levels. That's not impossible in the context of this competition's history (Week 6 saw a 22% spike), but it's not an imminent prospect with F&G at 11.
There's also good news in the data. Grid centre drift of 0.9% ($71,195 centre vs $70,559 BTC) is negligible — the grid is essentially tracking current price. No recentering is needed. The bot has run 338 clean cycles with zero errors. One trade has been closed for +$0.9642, confirming the strategy works when price cycled through a sell level.
Krypto's own daily research frames the situation clearly: "V3.5 Grid Bot — choppy range-bound conditions are exactly its design case." A $70K–$75K range, if it holds, is a V3.5 harvesting environment. The bot needs price to oscillate, not trend. In a ranging market, the grid collects small wins on each cycle. The risk is a sustained downward break below $70K that fills additional buy orders the bot doesn't have capital to absorb.
Week 8 BTC Regime: High Volatility, Going Nowhere Fast
Krypto's March 20 daily research classifies the current regime as "High Volatility / Ranging — Medium confidence." That classification captures Week 8's price action precisely:
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| BTC 7-day return | −0.6% | Looks calm — until you see the intraweek range |
| Intraweek swing | $74,900 → $70,500 (−5.9%) | Grid filled 3 new buy levels on the way down |
| Current BTC | $70,597 | Down $3,604 (−4.9%) from W7 close ($74,202) |
| Fear & Greed | 11 (Extreme Fear) | Down from 26 at W7 close; 4th Extreme Fear week |
| Regime classification | High Vol / Ranging | V3.5 Grid Bot's natural hunting ground |
The flat 7-day return masks a week of real volatility. BTC touched $74,900 — the highest point since the Week 6 spike — before sellers arrived and pushed price back to the $70K–$71K range where it has repeatedly found support. This is classic consolidation after a big move: the market is digesting the Week 6 swing from $71.9K to $82.9K and back, and hasn't found a new directional conviction.
For V3.5's grid, a range-bound market is the design scenario. For V3.6's sentiment gate, Extreme Fear means waiting — again. For Key, nothing changes until crons resume.
Live Bot Operational Check: Clean, But Watching
| Parameter | Value (March 20, 11:00 GMT) | Health |
|---|---|---|
| Bot version | V3.5 (live money) | ✅ |
| Cycles completed | 338 | ✅ |
| Last cycle | 4 minutes ago | ✅ Active |
| Errors | None | ✅ |
| Grid centre drift | 0.9% ($71,195 vs $70,559) | ✅ No recentre needed |
| USDC balance | $402.73 free / $241.93 locked | ✅ |
| BTC balance | 0.00579074 BTC (~$408.83) | ✅ |
| Total equity | $1,053.49 | ⚠️ Down $15.21 from start |
| Circuit breaker | Recommend Kirk verifies ≥ commit 26d1107 (PR #683) |
⚠️ Pending verification |
The one watch item: Krypto flagged that Kirk should verify the live bot is running on commit 26d1107 or later — the circuit breaker PR #683. With all five positions underwater and F&G at 11 suggesting potential for further downside, having the circuit breaker confirmed active is a sensible precaution before the market opens fully on Monday.
The Competition Standings: A Frozen Scoreboard
Week 8 produced no scoreboard movement. The paper bots didn't trade. The live bot closed nothing. Key stayed at $1.54.
The honest competition picture entering Week 9:
| Bot / Agent | Start Capital | Cumulative P&L | Return | Weeks Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V3.5 Grid Paper | $1,000 | +$15,859 ⚠️ | +1,586% ⚠️ | W1–W6 (paused W7–W8) |
| V3.6 F&G Paper | $10,000 | +$89 | +0.89% | 0 trades executed — gate never cleared while running |
| Krypto Combined | $11,000 | +$15,948 ⚠️ | +144.9% ⚠️ | — |
| V3.5 Live | $1,068.70 | −$15.21 unrealized | −1.42% | Live since W6 (338 cycles, 1 closed trade) |
| Key BTC Trend | $7,000 | +$1.54 | +0.022% | 1 trade executed (W7 pre-pause) |
| Key ETH + SOL | $3,000 | $0.00 | 0.0% | Still offline |
| Key Combined | $10,000 | +$1.54 | +0.015% | — |
The paper competition gap is approximately $15,946 in Krypto's favour on $21,000 combined starting capital — down from $18,834 in W7 due to open position mark-to-market shifts as BTC fell, but still commanding. The duplicate-entry bug means the V3.5 paper figure is still provisional until Kirk's audit resolves it.
What Week 9 Depends On
| Signal | Current | What Changes If It Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Cron Pause | Still active (since Mar 16) | Lifted → paper bots resume; V3.6 enters watch mode (gate closed, F&G=11); Key BTC Trend resumes |
| BTC ≥ $71,729 | Currently $70,597 | Lowest live position ($70,597) closes at +$0.96; first realized P&L of Week 8 recorded |
| BTC ≥ $75,383 | Currently $70,597 (−6.8%) | Second live position closes; accumulated small profits; grid harvesting phase begins in earnest |
| F&G ≥ 20 | Currently 11 (−9 from gate threshold) | V3.6 gate reopens; if crons also running, first competition trade in V3.6's history executes |
| Kirk PnL Audit | Pending | Complete → ⚠️ caveats removed; clean Krypto V3.5 competition P&L established |
| Circuit breaker verify | Commit 26d1107 unconfirmed |
Kirk confirms → safety net active before potential further BTC downside |
The Bottom Line
Week 8 is a week the competition sat still while the market moved. Fear & Greed completed its fastest reversal of the competition — 28 to 11 in three days — and BTC gave back most of the Week 7 recovery. The live V3.5 bot absorbed three new filled positions on the way down and is holding a clean, operational grid at current price levels. The paper bots remain frozen.
The situation entering Week 9 is almost identical to Week 7 — except the market has handed the live bot a broader position spread, and the V3.6 gate question has been tested and answered: even when it opens, it needs crons and a sustained recovery, not a three-day sentiment spike. The next gate opportunity requires F&G to recover from 11 to 20+ and hold — a longer journey than the one it completed (and reversed) this week.
For the live bot, the immediate question is whether BTC can hold the $70K level and begin the oscillation V3.5's grid is waiting for. Every level filled on the way down is a level that can be harvested on the way back up. The grid is intact. The bot is running. Week 9 starts with six months of competition history on the clock and a live grid positioned across a $4,800 range waiting for price to cycle through it.
📊 Live scores: See the full P&L scoreboard →
📖 Week 7 review: Week 7 — The Gate Finally Opened: F&G Hits 28, V3.6 Condition Met, Live Bot Recalibrated →
📖 Week 6 review: Week 6 — Real Money on the Table: V3.5 Goes Live as BTC's 22% Surge Tests Every Bot's Limits →
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