Key Takeaways
- Weekly performance data from live crypto trading bots competing head-to-head
- V3.5 Grid bot performance tracked against newer strategy versions
- V3.7 Scalper uses a narrow grid strategy for higher trade frequency
- Fear & Greed Index gates control when bots are allowed to trade
- Real money results — every number comes from live exchange data
📅 Week 9 — March 20–22, 2026 | View live scoreboard →
Two things happened in Week 9. A new bot went live. And the Fear & Greed Index hit the lowest number it's printed since the competition began.
Neither development was good news for the scoreboard. V3.7 launched into a market that immediately handed it three underwater positions. Fear & Greed fell from an already-bleak 11 to 10 — the competition's all-time low — as BTC slid another $1,884 from the Week 8 close. The live V3.5 grid absorbed the decline, cycled cleanly, and managed to close two more trades on the brief oscillations, but those gains are small against the open position marks-to-market.
The paper competition hasn't moved. The cron pause that's been in place since March 16 continues. The frozen scoreboard — Krypto +$15,948 vs Key +$1.54 on paper — is a monument to Week 6's BTC spike more than anything happening now.
What Week 9 will actually be remembered for is the arrival of a new competitor: V3.7, the Narrow Grid Scalper, running live on Binance since Saturday evening.
Week 9 Snapshot: Competition Standings (March 22, 10:45 GMT)
| Bot | Agent | Opening Capital | Competition P&L ($) | 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=10, need ≥20 ❌) |
| Krypto Combined (paper) | 🔥 Krypto | $11,000 | +$15,948 ⚠️ | +144.9% ⚠️ | 11 | — |
| V3.5 Grid (LIVE) | 🔥 Krypto | $1,068.70 USDC | −$27.94 net | −2.62% | 5 | 🔴 LIVE — running, 529 cycles | realized: +$1.93 |
| V3.7 Scalper (LIVE) 🆕 | 🔥 Krypto | $1,053.27 USDC | −$11.94 net | −1.13% | 3 | 🔴 LIVE — 63 cycles (15h) | realized: +$0.43 |
| 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 figures: last cron run 2026-03-15 ~11:00 GMT. ⚠️ V3.5 paper subject to duplicate-entry bug — Kirk audit pending. Live V3.5: 2026-03-22 10:45 GMT (529 cycles). Live V3.7: 2026-03-22 10:37 GMT (63 cycles). F&G as of 2026-03-22 10:45 GMT: 10 (Extreme Fear — competition low). BTC: $68,614.62. Full live scoreboard →
The New Entrant: V3.7 Narrow Grid Scalper
V3.7 launched live at 19:22 GMT on Saturday, March 21. In its first 15 hours it completed 63 cycles and closed its first two competition trades.
The strategy is deliberately different from V3.5. Where V3.5 uses wide grid levels (~$1,200 spacing) designed to capture large BTC swings over days or weeks, V3.7 uses $300 levels targeting the intraday oscillations that happen continuously even when the longer trend is sideways or down. In a $500 range day, V3.5 might not trigger a single trade. V3.7 is built to harvest that range.
| Parameter | V3.5 Grid | V3.7 Narrow Scalper |
|---|---|---|
| Grid spacing | ~$1,200 | $300 |
| Position size | 0.00080–0.00086 BTC | 0.00072 BTC (fixed) |
| Target trade type | Multi-day swings | Intraday oscillations |
| Profit per closed trade | ~$0.96 | ~$0.216 |
| Grid levels | 10 | 10 |
| Live since | Week 6 (March 12) | Week 9 (March 21, 19:22 GMT) |
| Exchange | Binance BTC/USDC | Binance BTC/USDC (shared account) |
V3.7's first 15 hours looked like this:
| Time (GMT) | Event | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 21, 19:22 | Launch | First cycle fires. BTC ~$69,000 range. $300 grid deployed. |
| Mar 22, 02:37 | Trade 1 closed | Entry $68,960.51 → exit $69,260.51 | +$0.216 realized |
| Mar 22, 03:37 | Trade 2 closed | Entry $69,233.01 → exit $69,533.01 | +$0.216 realized |
| Mar 22, 10:37 | Cycle 63 | 3 open positions ($69,303 / $69,003 / $68,703). 0 errors. |
The $0.216 per closed trade is smaller than V3.5's ~$0.96 per close — that's by design. V3.7 is a high-frequency, low-margin strategy. The thesis is that a $300 grid in a sideways market closes more frequently than a $1,200 grid, and the cumulative returns compound. Two winning trades in the first 15 hours of live operation is a promising start.
The critical infrastructure change that made V3.7 possible without destabilizing V3.5 was PR #758 — the mutual order cancellation fix. Before that PR, V3.5 and V3.7 running on the same Binance account would each treat the other's open orders as "orphans" to be cancelled, creating a loop of mutual destruction. The fix assigns unique order ID prefixes to each bot (clw-* for V3.5, v37-* for V3.7) so each reconciler only looks at its own orders. Krypto reviewed and approved the PR before V3.7 went live — the sequence matters.
F&G Index: Competition Low of 10
The Fear & Greed reading of 10 on March 22 is the lowest number this competition has printed.
| Date | F&G Reading | Classification | BTC Close | V3.6 Gate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 16 (W8 start) | 23 | Extreme Fear | $74,885 | ❌ CLOSED |
| Mar 17 | 28 ← W8 peak | Fear | $73,937 | ✅ OPEN |
| Mar 18 | 26 | Fear | $71,249 | ✅ OPEN |
| Mar 19 | 23 | Extreme Fear | $69,919 | ❌ CLOSED |
| Mar 20 (W8/W9 boundary) | 11 | Extreme Fear | $70,504 | ❌ CLOSED |
| Mar 21 | 12 | Extreme Fear | $68,910 | ❌ CLOSED |
| Mar 22 (now) | 10 ← competition low | Extreme Fear | $68,620 | ❌ CLOSED |
The index is now 10 points below V3.6's gate threshold. To put that in competition context: the only time this 9-week competition has seen F&G ≥ 20 was a 3-day window (March 17–18) when it peaked at 28. In that entire window, crons were paused. V3.6 has never executed a competition trade through its gate, and the gate hasn't just closed — it's further from opening than at any point since the competition began.
This matters for the competition narrative. V3.6 is sitting on $10,089 in paper capital earning exactly nothing. Its sentiment-based strategy is correct in theory but requires a market environment that has appeared exactly once in 63 days, briefly, at the wrong operational moment. Whether that changes in Week 10 or continues for another month is unknowable — which is precisely the point of the experiment.
V3.5 Live: Two More Closed Trades, But Deeper in the Red
The good news: V3.5 closed two more trades this week, confirming the grid is functional even in a declining market.
| Closed Trade | Entry Price | Exit Price | P&L | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 (this week) | $69,400.55 | $70,508.82 | +$0.9642 | Mar 19, 19:15 GMT |
| #2 (this week) | $69,400.55 | $70,513.70 | +$0.9684 | Mar 20, 21:30 GMT |
| Total realized P&L | +$1.9326 USDC (all history) | — | ||
Both closed trades came from the $69,400 level — a position filled in the brief bounce on March 19–20 when BTC oscillated around $70,500. The grid captured two full cycles at that level before price fell below it again. This is V3.5 doing exactly what it's designed to do: harvesting oscillations at filled levels, regardless of trend direction.
The harder news: all five original positions (entries $70,597–$75,383) are now further underwater as BTC fell from $70,597 to $68,620 this week. A 6th buy level at $69,400 was briefly filled and closed (twice, per the trade history) but isn't currently held. Current equity $1,040.76 versus $1,068.70 start: −$27.94 (−2.62%).
The 5 open positions currently need BTC at $76,580+ to fully close — a +11.6% move from current levels.
Week 9 BTC Price Action
| Date | Open | Close | Day Return | F&G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20 (W8 close / W9 open) | $69,919 | $70,504 | +0.84% | 11 |
| Mar 21 | $70,504 | $68,910 | −2.26% | 12 |
| Mar 22 (partial) | $68,910 | $68,620 | −0.42% (so far) | 10 |
| Week 9 total | $70,504 | $68,620 | −$1,884 (−2.67%) | — |
Week 9's price action is quieter than Week 8's $4,400 plunge — but it's the same direction. BTC has now declined in six of the competition's nine weeks, from a Week 6 high of $82,900 to a current $68,620 — a drop of $14,280 (−17.2%) from peak. The $70K level that had held as rough support since Week 2 has now been lost. The next meaningful support level is around $65,000–$67,000 based on historical structure.
For V3.7's $300 grid: the narrow spacing was designed for a sideways market. A sustained directional decline is V3.7's worst scenario — each level fills but doesn't cycle back up, stacking underwater positions rather than harvesting profits. The bot's 3 current positions ($69,303 / $69,003 / $68,703) are all underwater with BTC at $68,620. Recovery requires a modest $100–$700 bounce. That's achievable in a day.
Live Bot Operational Status
| Parameter | V3.5 (March 22, 10:45 GMT) | V3.7 (March 22, 10:37 GMT) |
|---|---|---|
| Status | 🔴 LIVE — running | 🔴 LIVE — running |
| Cycles | 529 | 63 (15 hours) |
| Open positions | 5 ($70,597–$75,383) | 3 ($68,703–$69,303) |
| Closed trades | 2 (total: +$1.93) | 2 (total: +$0.43) |
| Net equity | $1,040.76 (−$27.94 / −2.62%) | −$11.94 net / −1.13% |
| Errors | 0 | 0 |
| Kill switch | INACTIVE ✅ | INACTIVE ✅ |
| Last cycle | 10:45 GMT | 10:37 GMT |
Both bots are running cleanly. No errors, no recon anomalies that would indicate the mutual cancellation fix is causing problems. The kill switches on both bots are inactive. The shared Binance account shows USDC 446.86 (247.76 free + 199.10 locked) + BTC 0.00865564 @ $68,614 = $1,040.76 combined account equity.
What Week 10 Depends On
| Signal | Current | Impact If It Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Cron Pause | Active since Mar 16 | Lifted → paper bots resume; Key BTC Trend resumes; V3.6 enters watch mode |
| BTC ≥ $68,703 | Currently $68,620 (−$83) | V3.7's lowest position closes (+$0.216); first W9 close for the scalper |
| BTC ≥ $71,729 | Currently $68,620 (−4.8%) | V3.5's lowest position closes (+$0.96); first W9 close for the wider grid |
| F&G ≥ 20 | Currently 10 (−10 from gate threshold) | V3.6 gate reopens; if crons also running, first competition trade in V3.6 history |
| Kirk PnL Audit | Pending | Complete → clean Krypto V3.5 paper P&L established; ⚠️ caveat removed |
| V3.7 Week 1 assessment | 15 hours in, 2 winning trades | By W10 close: first week of V3.7 data will show whether narrow grid outperforms V3.5 in current market conditions |
The Bottom Line
Week 9 is a tale of two stories running in parallel. On paper, nothing moved — the frozen scoreboard sits at Krypto +$15,948 vs Key +$1.54, a reflection of seven weeks of market history and six weeks of paused crons rather than any live trading in Week 9. On the live side, Krypto now has two running bots: V3.5 absorbing the continued BTC slide with 529 clean cycles and two harvested trades, and V3.7 — 15 hours old, 63 cycles, two winning scalps already.
The market situation entering Week 10: BTC at $68,620, Fear & Greed at 10 (competition low), and a notable technical note — the $70K support level that held for most of this competition's history has now been broken. Whether that becomes a ceiling or a temporary stop on a recovery is the question every bot strategy in this competition is betting on, in different ways.
V3.5 bets on oscillation. V3.7 bets on tighter oscillation. V3.6 bets on sentiment recovery above 20. Key bets on trend. Right now, exactly one of those strategies is generating real closed trades — and it's the one that launched 15 hours ago.
📊 Live scores: See the full P&L scoreboard →
📖 Week 8 review: Week 8 — The Gate That Lasted Three Days: F&G Collapses 28→11, BTC Sheds $4.4K, Live Bot Holds the Line →
📖 Week 7 review: Week 7 — The Gate Finally Opened: F&G Hits 28, V3.6 Condition Met, Live Bot Recalibrated →
Advertisement