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'Squid Game' Bitcoin Scammers Make Off With $3.3 Million

Ewan Moore

Published 
| Last updated 

'Squid Game' Bitcoin Scammers Make Off With $3.3 Million

Featured Image Credit: Netflix

The unofficial Squid Game cryptocurrency that appeared last week has already lost almost all of its value, and its anonymous creators have disappeared with about $3.3 million taken from those who invested in it. 

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‘SQUID’ was marketed as a kind of “play-to-earn cryptocurrency” that was unofficially based on the hit Netflix show. An immediate reg flag to some was the fact that anyone who purchased SQUID would be unable to sell it on via the usual channels, even as its value appeared to rocket from $38 to $2,861.80 in the space of one week. 

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SQUID's white paper explained that you would instead have to pick up “Marble” tokens through a play to earn game before you could sell your coins. 

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Through this lock on selling, SQUID’s anonymous creators were able to allege hackers were attempting to steal from them before dropping the project altogether. They then made off with investor money, and ensured the coin’s value dropped to virtually nothing. The New York Times reports those who still have the tokens no longer need the “Marbles” to sell it on, but the damage is very much already done. 

"Someone is trying to hack our project these days,” read a moderator post on the official SQUID Telegram channel. “Not only the Twitter account @GoGoSquidGame but also our smart contract. We are trying to protect it but the price is still abnormal. Squid Game Dev does not want to continue running the project as we are depressed from the scammers and [are] overwhelmed with stress. We have to remove all the restrictions and the transaction rules of Squid Game. Squid Game will enter a new stage of community autonomy."

SQUID’s creators promised that “Marbles” would be earned via a game based on the show, which you first needed SQUID to access and play. The game was never shown, and all the creators ever really said about it was that “obtaining Marbles without using violence is the key to Squid Game”. 

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Somewhat predictably, SQUID also planned to make used of NFTs based on characters from the show. They are, of course, also all gone now. 

Topics: Netflix

Ewan Moore
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