By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – The Squid Game cryptocurrency that gained popularity after being featured on many national and international news sites last week was likely a scam, with the price of the cryptocurrency dropping to almost $0 after trading as high as $38.64 on Sunday.
The token, named after the popular Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) series but not affiliated to the show, had risen from its opening price of $0.01229 to $38.64 (+300,000%) after launching last week but has since collapsed in what those in the industry are referring to as a “rug pull”. CoinMarketCap defines a rug pull as a “malicious manoeuvre in the cryptocurrency industry where crypto developers abandon a project and run away with investors’ funds”.
Twitter accounts restricted
The Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) accounts related to the coin have been restricted by the social media platform. At the time of writing, the @GoGoSquidGame account has over 57,000 followers.
“Anti-dumping technology”
The cryptocurrency's whitepaper detailed “anti-dumping technology” that prevented users from selling their coins unless certain conditions were met. It meant users were not able to sell their tokens before the price collapsed.
The cryptocurrency information site, CoinMarketCap has issued a warning to users on its site, although it may be too little too late for some investors.
“We have received multiple reports that the website and socials are no longer functional & the users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap,” CoinMarketCap wrote. “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.”
The technology website Gizmodo estimates that the creators of the coin made off with $2.1 million from the likely scam.