Squid Game Crypto Went From $0 to $600 in Days and Back to $0 in Seconds

A new cryptocurrency, SQUID, based on the popular Netflix series, Squid Game, was making the news last week for its meteoric rise. It is again in the news after its creators shut down the project and have disappeared altogether from the internet, Gizmodo reported. 

Just last week, we reported how a new crypto coin, Shiba Inu was up seven million percent just a year after its launch and how new crypto coins were reaching the market almost every day. Inspired by the Netflix series, Squid was one such cryptocurrency that was launched last week. Surfing on the popularity of the series, the creators of the crypto had said the currency would be used in an online playable version of the Squid Game, where users could earn more coins, that they could later encash for real money. 

Needless to say, the creators of the crypto coin were nowhere associated with the creators of the series or even Netflix. Looking to make a quick buck, investors bought the crypto coin and might have been elated to see its value soar to $2,856 apiece from the measly one cent at its launch. Gizmodo reports that all major news outlets covered this acute value gain while it remained suspicious and highlighted the red flags. 

One such red flag was the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors on the website that was launched just a few weeks ago. Although no longer available publicly, you can get a glimpse of it on the Internet Archive. The website also took an Elon Musk tweet and used it out of context to promote its cause. 

ISPs Want More Money Because So Many People Are Streaming Squid Game https://t.co/ITZCVtxNAW

— Slashdot (@slashdot) October 22, 2021

The biggest signal that something wasn't right was that buyers of the crypto coin could not sell them. BBC reported that SQUID was available for sale on crypto exchanges such as Pancakeswap and DODO, which are decentralized but also do not much due diligence, before listing them. 

In what is called a 'rug pull' when defining scams, the creators shut down the project when they had a decent number of investments made. With no means to cash out, investors are estimated to have lost a total of $3.38 million, Gizmodo reported. The value of the crypto coin plummeted from its all-time high to $0 in just a few hours. 

This is not the first time a series has been used to pull off a scam. Earlier this year, a crypto coin called Mando was released, inspired by another popular series called Mandalorian, which had a similar modus operandi, Gizmodo reported.