Binance launches probe into Squid Game crypto scam

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has said that it is looking into SQUID, the Squid Game-themed token, and will report any findings to the relevant criminal enforcement agency.

The announcement comes following the coin’s impressive rally and subsequent market meltdown, in which investors lost millions of dollars—clear evidence that the whole thing was a massive hoax.

SQUID was unveiled less than two weeks ago and received a lot of media hype almost instantaneously, rising in value by more than 2,000% in just a few days.

When Gizmodo reached out to Binance for a response, a representative said their security team has initiated an inquiry – as a gesture of goodwill – and is “exploring solutions to support the community.”

Blocking withdrawals

Binance said it was putting on blacklist addresses to restrict withdrawals from the crypto exchange’s accounts linked to the fraud and utilizing blockchain analytics to identify malicious actors.

Binance said that its team of Investigators will be presenting its findings to law enforcement in the “appropriate jurisdiction.”

The SQUID token is based on the international hit Netflix show set in South Korea and features a horrific “battle royale” in which debt-ridden contestants play fatal children’s games for a chance to earn billions of Korean won.

The SQUID Rug Pull

The coin’s technology was built on the Binance Smart Chain, and it was created by anonymous developers who advertised it with a badly written “white paper” and a slew of social media profiles dedicated to the coin’s promotion.

SQUID was clearly a fraud, according to Gizmodo, who pointed it out around a week ago. The fact that investors could put money into the coin but not get it back was the clearest indication of a scam.

A few days later, everything came crashing down in what appeared to be a typical “rug pull” — a form of exit scam in which the producers of a crypto project abruptly abandon it and flee with the money of investors.

Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube

Source: https://bitcoinerx.com/blockchain/binance-launches-probe-into-squid-game-crypto-scam/