As has been the case with many other cryptocurrency scams, a new one preying on social trends enticed enough investors for its value to soar. A cryptocurrency based on the Netflix hit Squid Game lured in people’s money to the value of $3.38 million, when its creators cashed out and vanished. It was called $SQUID, launched in late October and grew in value by 310,000 percent in a matter of days.
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It wasn’t sanctioned by Netflix, of course, but it was claiming to be raising money for a way for investors to play an upcoming online game based on the South Korean series, in which people buried in debt are forced to play a deadly game. On Monday morning, the coin’s value plummeted to $0, its website disappeared, and its Twitter account got blocked.
As reported by Gizmodo, its creators staged what’s called in the crypto world as a “rug pull,” wherein the coin’s creators cash out for real money and disappear. As is the case with many of these crypto scams, the signs were there for all to see, but were ignored or not understood by naïve investors.
Its website was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and as Gizmodo pointed out, people were able to buy coins but weren’t allowed to sell them. Other red flags included the fact that SQUID’s Telegram channel, set up by the unknown scammers, didn’t allow comments from outsiders. And the Twitter account made it impossible for anyone to reply to posts. But the biggest red flag was that no one who purchased the coin was able to sell.
This isn’t the first or the last time a pop culture phenomenon will be used to launch a scam coin. If you are an investor, do the due diligence, because a small selection of the thousands of cryptocurrencies on the market offers real value.
