A cryptocurrency impressed by Squid Game efficiently enticed sufficient traders to see its worth soar to over $2,800… earlier than its creators cashed out and vanished. The cryptocurrency referred to as $SQUID, which wasn’t formally sanctioned by Netflix, launched in late October and rose as much as 310,000 % in worth inside only a few days. It was bought supposedly as a technique to play an upcoming on-line sport primarily based on the South Korean sequence, by which folks buried in debt are compelled to play a lethal sport.
At 5:40AM on Monday morning, nevertheless, the coin’s worth plummeted to $0, its web site disappeared (you’ll be able to view an archive right here) and its Twitter account acquired blocked. As Gizmodo defined, its creators staged what’s referred to as within the crypto world as a “rug pull,” whereby the coin’s creators money out for actual cash and disappear. The scammers might have made off with as a lot as $3.38 million.
There have been a number of indicators that the cryptocurrency was a rip-off from the beginning — folks merely missed or ignored them, maybe as a result of promise of a sport primarily based on the favored Netflix present. Its web site was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and as Gizmodo identified, folks have been in a position to purchase cash however weren’t allowed to promote them.
This is not the primary time a coin primarily based on a popular culture phenomenon was launched, and it will not be the final. Whereas some could also be legit, these to spend money on them must hold a watch out for indicators of fraud. Simply earlier this yr, a cryptocurrency primarily based on The Mandalorian turned out to be a scam, as nicely.
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