SQUID Cryptocurrency Inspired By TV Game Show Collapses

SQUID Cryptocurrency Inspired By TV Game Show Collapses

A cryptocurrency inspired by South Korean hit TV show Squid Game has lost its entire 230,000% gain in a week, prompting aggrieved investors to cry fraud

NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2021) A cryptocurrency inspired by South Korean hit tv show Squid Game has lost its entire 230,000% gain in a week, prompting aggrieved investors to cry fraud.

Dubbed SQUID, in an unmistakable reference to the survival drama on streaming service Netflix, the cryptocurrency rose to as high as $2,861.80 over the past week before plunging to zero by Tuesday's trade.

Regulators had not immediately responded to the collapse of the cryptocurrency, which many on Twitter called a scam.

"A lot of my normie friends bought this $SQUID game token and couldn't sell," a Twitter user called Friend-of-Peach said. Normie is slang for "normal person."

SQUID was promoted as a play-to-earn cryptocurrency inspired by the fictional show in which people put their lives at risk to play a series of children's games for the opportunity to win 45.6 billion South Korean won ($38.7 million).

The founders of SQUID had said they were affiliated with the Netflix show as its official token partner. The show's producers have not backed up the claim.

The cryptocurrency's founders also said they had entered a strategic partnership with CoinGecko, a crypto data provider.

However, in an interview with industry portal Cointelegraph, CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong refuted the claim, saying: "(SQUID) did not meet our listing criteria, hence it will not be listed on CoinGecko. It's most likely a scam."

Cointelegraph also reported on Tuesday that prior to the crash, traders had complained that they could not sell their SQUID holdings in the only available market, a decentralized exchange called PancakeSwap.

"In their defense, SQUID founders said they had deployed an innovative 'anti-dumping technology' that limits people from selling their tokens against lower demand," Cointelegraph said, adding: "It now appears like a "game over" scenario for the SQUID bag holders."

SQUID is the latest debacle in the crypto industry, a $2 trillion market where innumerable offerings are made daily to investors often lured by the idea of astronomical gains without adequate knowledge or skill to navigate such trades.

US regulators, including Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler who calls crypto the "Wild West" of the financial world, have promised tough action against scammers in the business. New York Attorney General Letitia James has also fined and shut down numerous cryptocurrency offerings in the state.