Squid Game-Inspired Crypto Price Plunges to Zero, Concerns on Alleged Scam

SQUID, the cryptocurrency inspired by Netflix’s hit TV series ‘Squid Game’, turned out to be part of an alleged $3.38 million scam scheme as its value fell to zero at the start of the month. Last week, the token made the headlines because it significantly skyrocketed by over 75,000% to hit $2,850.

Afterward, the crypto plunged significantly to reach the $0.002 level in a matter of minutes, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The promoters of SQUID claimed that the play-to-earn token was inspired and even endorsed by the popular South Korean TV series, saying that the coin already had installed an ‘anti-dumping technology’ that limits holders from selling their SQUIDs against lower demand. However, when the price hit $2,850, users complained that they couldn’t sell their tokens on PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange and the only one where SQUID could be allegedly liquidated.

“The more people join, the larger reward pool will be (sic). Developers will take 10% of the entry fee with the remaining 90% given to the winner,” its white paper claimed. Still, red flags on the project started to arise when its website showed that Netflix was allegedly one of their partners, together with Microsoft and Coingecko – nothing of these partnerships were true.

Moreover, none of the key members listed in the website’s project appeared online or on social media like LinkedIn to check their professional background, suggesting that they didn’t exist.

CoinMarketCap Statement on SQUID

After suspicions of an alleged scam, CoinMarketCap issued the following statement on SQUID’s token page: “There is growing evidence that this project has rugged. Please do your own due diligence and exercise extreme caution. This project, while clearly inspired by the Netflix show of the same name, is NOT affiliated with the official IP.”

As of press time, SQUID’s official website is offline, and its official Twitter profile is ‘temporarily restricted.’