A digital currency based on Netflix TV show “Squid Game” suffered a massive blowback Monday (Nov. 1) and is now trading at $0, with the creators cashing out, according to CNN Monday (Nov. 1).
The move means the creators essentially stole $2.1 million from investors. The crypto, called SQUID, had gone as high as $2,861 with a market cap just over $2 million before Nov. 1.
It’s now down to $0 in what Gizmodo has called a scam and a “rug pull,” referencing when the creators cash out their coins in exchange for real money, rapidly devaluing the crypto.
SQUID was reportedly billed as a token to be used for a new online game that has been inspired by the TV show, which centers around a group of South Korean citizens playing deadly games to try and win large sums of money from a shadowy cabal. Netflix said the show has become its biggest-ever series launch, with 111 million accounts watching it since it came out in September.
The CNN report cites Gizmodo’s several indicators that SQUID was a scam, with the website being “filled with spelling errors” and the fact that investors could only buy the coin, not sell it. In addition, CoinMarketCap reportedly warned that SQUID was a scam and said investors should “exercise extreme caution.”
PYMNTS reported on the SQUID crypto last week, writing then of the possibility that it was a scam, and that users weren’t able to sell on decentralized exchange Pancakeswap, without any clear reason for that being the case except a SQUID white paper saying the coin had “anti-dumping” technology making it so coins can’t be sold without some conditions being met.
Read more: Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Spawns Crypto Coin With Market Cap Above $174M
As of Oct. 28, the coin was trading at $2.22 and was up 2,400%, with the market capitalization sitting at $174 million.
