‘CoronaCoin’ cryptocurrency lets traders cash in on coronavirus outbreak

A new cryptocurrency will let buyers reap grim benefits from the number of people who fall ill or die from the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency, called CoronaCoin, will operate off a morbid, and gimmicky, structure: the number of available coins — called “tokens” — will decrease, and so gain in value, as more people die of the virus, the currency’s website reads.

CoronaCoin creators established a set number of 7,604,953,650 tokens in the world representing the estimated population of Earth.

“As the number of infected/dead from the virus increases, the number of tokens are manually burned every 48 hours,” the website reads. “So for every one infection, one token is burned.”

By Friday night, 85,366 tokens had been burned.

“The fact that the number of tokens decreases over time, means that it is deflationary and should become more valuable over time,” the website reads. “The supply is also non-mintable, so no new Coronacoins can ever be created.”

The coin’s creators have tried marketing it as a “2019-nCoV relief effort,” the website shows, by claiming that around 20% of the supply will be allocated for monthly donations to the Red Cross.

The new cryptocurrency, which launched with a Reddit post, was created amid a massive downturn in the stock market — the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.

The financial dip has been attributed to fears of the novel coronavirus — which has stifled business investments and crippled supply chains worldwide.

The World Health Organization on Friday announced that the coronavirus risk alert remains “very high” worldwide, despite efforts by the CDC to downplay its spread in the United States.