‘Squid Game’ Cryptocurrency Quits On Players And Steals $3 Million Money Pot
Image via Netflix
Last week, it was reported that a Squid Game cryptocurrency had emerged, with the token rising nearly 2,170% in just one day. Unfortunately, much like the television series, the newest cryptocurrency craze left many of its buyers to their own demise.
As it turns out, the entire operation was a scam, with Gizmodo reporting that the masterminds made off with nearly US$3.4 million.
Even as interest in the coin surged, there were already several red flags, the biggest being the fact investors weren’t able to sell off the cryptocurrency.
CoinMarketCap previously pointed out that it had received “multiple reports” of players not being able to offload their tokens, though at the time, it wasn’t confirmed that the glitch was part of the scam.
In fact, many investors thought they were on their way to cashing out big, as per The Guardian, the coin had spiked to US$2,856 at its peak. However, unwittingly, the scammers performed a “rug pull,” quickly cashing out their tokens for real money and draining the pool in the process.
Currently, the token’s website has disappeared, along with all its other social media accounts, including its white paper. Many have pointed out that the scammers acted suspiciously from the get-go, disallowing anyone from replying to their tweets, and disabling comments from others in the Telegram channel.
“Remarkably, many such coins rapidly catch investors’ fancy, leading to wildly inflated valuations. Naive retail investors who get caught up in such speculative frenzies face the risk of substantial losses,” Cornell University Economist, Eswar Prasad, explained to the BBC.
For investors lucky enough to come out of the Squid Game scam unscathed, hopefully, this incident will serve as a reminder to do the due diligence before pouring one’s life savings into the latest fad token.
[via Gizmodo and The Guardian, cover image via Netflix]
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