Squid Game Crypto Scammers Cheat Investors Out of $2.1M

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. As a follow up to our story last week, Squid Game Cryptocurrency Now Exists — But Should You Trust It?, we’re now learning that there was reason to question the Squid Game-based cryptocurrency known as Squid Token, which launched last week.

Though the token jumped in value by over 2,000% in about a day, we’re now learning from Gizmodo that it was indeed all a scam, with the anonymous schemers behind the token reportedly bilking users out of $2.1 million.

Suspicions around the cryptocurrency were raised last week when it was discovered investors could purchase the token, but not sell it. The Squid Token peaked at a value of $2,861 before crashing back down to close to $0 early Monday morning, according to CoinMarketCap.

It appears to be another case of crypto creators quickly cashing out on their coin or token for real money, draining the value, in a practice known by crypto investors as a “rug pull.”

Adding to the mysteriousness behind its creation, the crypto’s original website and accompanying social media presence have both now disappeared completely.

There were red flags all along the way of the token’s rise and fall, including Squid Token not allowing outside comments on its Telegram channel as well as its Twitter account disabling reply tweets to any of its posts.

The now-defunct website, SquidGame.cash, was also a mere three weeks old upon the token’s launch and filled with strange grammar and spelling errors.

A similar “rug pull” scam harvesting pop culture hype occurred earlier this year, utilizing the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian, without the permission of The House of Mouse.

It’s a sad state of affairs to be sure, and its schemers ironically parallel the shadowy organization central to the plot of the Netflix hit series. Squid Game follows financially destitute people as they are recruited by a mysterious organization, promising an exorbitant sum of $38 for winning a series of children’s games — but the facilitators fail to make clear that if any of the 456 contests lose at any of the games, they die.