Squid Game was released globally in late 2021 and quickly became one of the most-watched television series on Netflix. It attracted viewers from more than 94 countries, and the series was well-received even by critics.
Countless people quickly jumped onto the train of Squid Game as it became one of the trending and hot topics that continued into early 2022. Many people saw this as an opportunity to gain from the show using the internet, and some of them did.
SQUID was crypto based on Squid Game and claimed to be affiliated with the television series by the founder of the squid game coin. Thousands held the tokens, which they eventually lost as the developers cashed them for real money and vanished into the internet void.
The squid game crypto scam is one of many crypto scams, as there have been many in the past decade. However, it is essential to know what happened and the various risks that were clearly shown but ignored by many. Let us dive deeper into what exactly happened and learn how you can stay safe from crypto scams.Overview: Squid Game
Squid Game is a popular, ongoing survival drama series on Netflix. It was released globally on September 17th, 2021. The series quickly became the most-watched series on Netflix, becoming the first South Korean drama to do so, and it was estimated that the show drew over 111 million viewers worldwide in the first 17 days of its launch.
The show was greatly appreciated and received critical acclaim from various TV-show critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an average Tomatometer score of 95% and an average audience score of 83%. On IMDb, the show has received a rating of 8/10.
Hwang Dong-hyuk created the Squid game. The cast includes remarkable people such as Lee Jung-Jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-Joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-Su, Heo Sung-Tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-young.
Hwang Dong-hyuk had initially written the idea for the show in 2009, but he needed help finding a production company willing to fund it. A decade later, Netflix took an interest in his idea of the show in 2019 as part of their drive to expand on foreign cinema.
In the show, 456 players play a deadly version of various children’s games for the chance to win ₩45.6 billion or US$35 million. The 456 players are people who have economic troubles in their lives.
The players must wear green tracksuits and be monitored and watched by masked guards who wear pink jumpsuits. The games are overseen by a Front Man who wears a black mask and black uniform.
Squid game starts its story with a man named Seong Gi-hun, a divorced father living with his elderly mother. He is then invited to play a game for a chance to win the big cash prize. The players later discovered that losing the game resulted in their death, with each death adding ₩100million to the grand prize of ₩45.6 billion.
The show surpassed and broke records on Netflix by becoming the most-watched show of all time. Squid game is renewed for a second season which is expected to arrive sometime in late 2023 or early 2024. Netflix is also developing a reality competition-based program based on the show featuring 456 players and a large cash prize.
The show of great success has attracted millions across the globe. This vast attraction of the show became an opportunity for some people to start a squid game crypto scam where thousands lost their investments.
What Actually Happened With Squid Game Crypto?
The cryptocurrency was named SQUID. The cryptocurrency had no affiliation with the Netflix series but still attracted many around the globe as it was marketed as a play-to-earn cryptocurrency.
The currency was launched on November 1st, becoming one of the most hyped digital tokens. SQUID started trading at one penny per one token and peaked at $2,861 in a week before falling to $0 in just 5 minutes, according to CoinMarketCap. This is commonly referred to as a rug pull by crypto investors. The squid game crypto chart published by various media outlets showed the growth of the coin and the steep fall in its value.
This rug pull event is triggered when the creators cash out the cryptocurrency for real money, draining the liquidity pool from the exchange. Various websites pointed out how SQUID’s website had multiple grammatical errors and that the coin was probably a scam, but many ignored the flaws.
Media outlets quickly jumped on the hype train to show how SQUID had soared over 83,000% in just a few days, pushing many to invest in squid game crypto scam. But they could have shown that the credibility and legitimacy of the coin were non-existent.
This could have ended better for the investors. More than 40 thousand people held tokens of SQUID. After the “rug pull,” the website was taken offline, and the social media accounts of SQUID and its creators vanished with no explanation whatsoever.
The red flags were always there. As mentioned before, the website had many spelling errors. The identities of its creators were never clarified, and the inbuilt tools made selling tokens much harder than buying them. The investors were required to buy another cryptocurrency named ‘Marbles’ before they could sell their tokens.
Not only that, the website which hosted all the details of crypto based on the squid game was registered only a month before it was launched. It was doubtful that the crypto based on the squid game was legitimate because it had no partnership with the show Squid Game, as we mentioned before.
How Much Did Squid Game Crypto Make?
The squid game crypto scam amount is hard to quantify, but approximately US$3.38 million vanished in just a few minutes. From launching the token to reaching its peak and eventually plummeting to $0 in under two weeks, the squid game coin founder also vanished from social media, just like the SQUID tokens.
SQUID tokens were hyped, so much so that in that span of just 10 minutes, their value skyrocketed from $628.33 to $2,851.65 at one point. Many people invested, and some even put their life savings into the currency they eventually lost.
Websites like Gizmodo and CoinMarketCap warned people to be cautious when investing in SQUID. The creators of SQUID right before the “rug pull” posted on their telegram channel, stating that someone was trying to hack their project. However, that was completely bogus, and the channel itself was later deleted.
How You Can Protect Yourself From Crypto Scam
What happened to squid coin is nothing new. Many try to take advantage of the gaps and flaws that lie in cryptocurrency. In early 2021, a similar “rug pull” also occurred with a cryptocurrency named Mando, after the famous Disney Mandalorian television series.
The website registered only a week before the Mando launch and was filled with images from the show. The images were used without permission from Disney, and just like SQUID, Mando had no official partnership with the television series Mandalorian.
There are plenty more examples, which is why vital research before you start investing in a cryptocurrency is critical. Jumping onto the hype train is seldom beneficial. Being aware of the origins of cryptocurrency is also crucial.
Going into the depth of the origins of the cryptocurrency, doing google searches with the keywords like scam, review, and more. By Looking at social media posts that criticize any cryptocurrency flaws and skimming over cryptocurrency developers’ accounts. This is part of the fundamental and much-needed research in today’s world.
There are not just investment scams but phishing crypto and miscellaneous scams that require some “urgent” bitcoin transfer to help their needs. However, this is all fake, and you should always keep your credentials to important crypto wallets only to yourself.
Conclusion
It is essential to keep some specific things in mind before investing. The squid game crypto scam is just one of the many examples, and for what it’s worth, the squid game scam now serves the purpose of being an excellent example of the various red flags one should look out for when investing in cryptocurrency.
What happened to squid coin was most probably planned by its creators. Cryptocurrency has only been here for a little over a decade, but scams involving such significant amounts have started to take place. Nonetheless, there can be more, so keep your eyes and ears open for any potential risks when investing in the crypto market.
Last but not least, avoid jumping on the hype train just like the media did for the crypto based on squid game.
