South Korean survival drama television series on Netflix, Squid Game, is Netflix’s most-watched series to date, surpassing 2020 classic Bridgerton.
The series became a movie anthem globally and was the first Korean drama to top Netflix’s top ten most-watched TV show charts globally, getting Gotham and People’s Choice Awards nominations.
It is on the premise of the popularity of the film that a cryptocurrency called SQUID, based on, even though not directly affiliated to the producers and directors of the TV series was launched.
Users, not oblivious of the intrigues of the drama series were eager to invest on a digital currency that was based on the popular Netflix exclusive, but it did not end well. According to reports, the SQUID crypto has allegedly scammed users out of $3 million.
According to price-tracking website for cryptoassets, CoinMarketCap, the SQUID cryptocurrency reached a peak of $2,861 before plummeting to $0 around 5:40 a.m. ET after its launch last week. The particular theft pulled by SQUID in this case is commonly known by crypto investors as ‘rug pull’ and happens when the crypto creators speedily cash out their coins for real non-digital money.
The cached translation details revealed that the alleged SQUID fraudsters made off with an estimated $3.3 million.
But before the successful heist, the crypto coin had plenty red flags that could have made the populace thread with caution: One of the red flags was the three-week old website usage of bizarre spelling and grammatical errors on its dashboard. The SquidGame.cash domain name website has also vanished together with other social media handles set up by the alleged fraudsters.
Another red flag is that its official Telegram channel that was set up to update users disallowed comments from outsiders, with the Twitter account not also allowing users reply comments on posts.
But the SQUID Telegram group has not vanished like other social media accounts, with a statement coming from the administrators that they are not responsible for the “rug pull” event, claiming that “someone is trying to hack our project.”
“We are trying to protect it, but the price is still abnormal,” they continued. “Squid Game Dev does not want to continue running the project as we are depressed from the scammers and is overwhelmed with stress,” they added.
The biggest red flag that should have discouraged meticulous investors is that users who purchased SQUID coin were unable to sell any.
The BBC, Yahoo News, Business Insider, Fortune, and CNBC and other mainstream news outlets had covered and continued to cover the report of how the new Squid Game crypto had soared by 83,000 percent over just a few days and this may have played a part in convincing gullible users despite the obvious red flags .
The creators of the SQUID crypto may have latched on the usage of pop culture to get media attention, taking a cue from the Mando crypto that had used images from Disney+’s Mandalorian TV show without consent from the entertainment company.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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