Orca DEX weekly gain reaches 98% after a sharp evening climb

The Orca DEX token traded at $3.23 at 7:39 p.m. ET on Tuesday, up 37% in a day and 98% in a week, per CoinGecko.

The quick take

Price: $ORCA at $3.23, +37% in 24 hours ↑ and +98% in seven days ↑ (CoinGecko, 7:39 p.m. ET).
Trigger: No Orca announcement explains the move; a 22% jump in one afternoon hour led the day on Binance.
Watch: Sell trades still outnumber buys in the two biggest ORCA/SOL pools.

Orca DEX ($ORCA) is close to doubling in a week. The Orca DEX weekly gain reached 98% at 7:39 p.m. ET on Tuesday, with the token at $3.23, per CoinGecko. A fresh evening climb pushed it to the top of its daily range.

What happened

$ORCA rose 37% in 24 hours, per CoinGecko data at 7:39 p.m. ET. Its 24-hour range ran from $2.29 to $3.23, so the token sat at its high. Over 30 days it is up 131%.

Jupiter’s price feed showed $3.2286, within 0.04% of CoinGecko. The token is still 84% below its record of $20.33, set on Oct. 2, 2021.

Why it moved

No announcement from Orca explains the jump, so the cause is not confirmed. Hourly prices on Binance’s ORCA/USDT pair show two bursts of buying. The first lifted the price 22% in the hour to 2 p.m. ET, from $2.59 to $3.15.

The token then slipped to $2.83 by 4 p.m. ET. Buyers came back in the evening and lifted it 14% to $3.23 by 7:41 p.m. ET.

Trading was heavy. CoinGecko counted $359.2 million in 24-hour volume, about 1.8 times the token’s $196.4 million market value.

Who’s buying and selling

On-chain, sellers made more trades than buyers. DexScreener shows 41,660 sells and 39,182 buys in the biggest ORCA/SOL pool on Orca, which holds $1.19 million in liquidity.

GeckoTerminal tracks a second ORCA/SOL pool with $1.28 million in liquidity. It shows the same pattern: 5,839 sells against 4,819 buys. More sell trades during a rise can mean many small sellers taking profit while fewer, larger buys lift the price.

The wider market was quiet. Solana ($SOL) traded at $120.68, down 0.1% in a day, per CoinGecko. Bitcoin ($BTC) slipped 0.5%, per LiveCoinWatch.

What to watch next

Watch whether $ORCA holds near its daily high of $3.23 after two fast bursts of buying. Also watch the gap between sell and buy trades in the top pools. A confirmed reason from Orca would show whether the rally rests on news or on trading alone.

Bottom line: $ORCA nearly doubled in a week, but the reason behind its latest jump is still unknown.

Price data: CoinGecko