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While the fate of many contestants of the Squid Game was a quick death, unfortunately, for some investors, things didn’t work out as well. A cryptocurrency project based on the popular Netflix series, Squid Game, has pulled an exit scam, stealing millions of dollars from investors. 

Last week, an unknown developer launched a crypto token called SQUID token inspired by the popular Netflix show. The digital currency started trading on the PancakeSwap platform on October 26. In the beginning, it was valued at one penny per token. According to CoinMarketCap, the price grew to $2.861 by Monday.

Just a few days in, CoinMarketCap issued a warning that something was wrong. Someone suddenly dismantled the Squid coin site and no one could reach the promoters of the coin.

According to the CoinMarketCap:

“We have received multiple reports that the website and socials are no longer functional and users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap. There is growing evidence that this project has been rugged. Please do your own due diligence and exercise extreme caution.”

On November 1, investors of the coin found out that they were unable to sell their tokens online. More than 43000 investors bought the SQUID token and became prey to what crypto experts are calling a “rug pull” scam. The current worth of the Squid Game cryptocurrency is $0.003028 after it crashed by over 99.99%.

This is known as a ‘rug pull’ scam where the funds of crypto investors are moved somewhere else, and the developers disappear. It often leads to the coin value being plummeted, as seen in the case of Squid Game cryptocurrency case. According to estimates by Gizmodo, investors have lost over $3.3 million. 

Twitter is not displaying a warning on the SQUID Game account as well as they have temporarily suspended the account. In a Telegram channel, the administrator also said that we are shutting down the project due to the recent activities.

squid-game-message

Image: Zdnet

According to J.P. Richardson, CEO of a blockchain wallet company Exodus, investors of the Squid coin won’t get their money back. The incidents highlight the importance of being extra vigilant when investing in cryptocurrency.

Cybercriminals have taken advantage of the current popularity of the Korean survival show. Recently we saw Squid Game mobile applications breaching data of Android users. Similarly, the cryptocurrency creators took the change to scam investors, particularly Gen Zers and Millenials.

According to Richardson, people should have seen the scam coming as there was a clear giveaway: the website told the investors that their money will be secured behind an anti-dump technology. “If your money has to be locked up, that made it pretty clear it was a scam,” says Richardson.

Cryptocurrency scams have led to the biggest financial losses in the past and scammers are finding new ways to con people into investing in fake cryptocurrencies like the Squid Game token. Despite that, we see rapid growth in cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin reached its highest price of nearly $50,000 in February.

We advise you to take your time and do your research before investing in cryptocurrencies to avoid such scams.