Squid Game Cryptocurrency Scammers Make Off With $2.1 Million

The nameless hucksters behind a Squid Game cryptocurrency have formally pulled the rug on the mission, making off with an estimated $2.1 million. Remember on Friday morning when Gizmodo instructed you it was an apparent rip-off? It was solely apparent as a result of traders may buy the crypto however couldn’t promote it. But loads of individuals didn’t get the warning in time.

The SQUID cryptocurrency peaked at a worth of $2,861 earlier than plummeting to $0 round 5:40 a.m. ET., in response to the web site CoinMarketCap. This type of theft, generally known as a “rug pull” by crypto traders, occurs when the creators of the crypto shortly money out their cash for actual cash, draining the liquidity pool from the trade.

The SQUID crypto coin was launched simply final week and included loads of pink flags, together with a three-week previous web site full of weird spelling and grammatical errors. The web site, hosted at SquidGame.cash, has disappeared, together with each different social media presence arrange by the scammers. You can see an archived model of the web site here.

Other pink flags included the truth that SQUID’s Telegram channel, arrange by the unknown scammers, didn’t enable feedback from outsiders. And the Twitter account made it unattainable for anybody to answer to posts.

But the largest pink flag was that nobody who bought the coin was capable of promote. That didn’t cease mainstream information retailers just like the BBC, Yahoo News, Business Insider, Fortune, and CNBC from working headlines about how the brand new Squid Game cryptocurrency had soared by 83,000% over just some days.

This is simply the newest instance of scammers using popular culture to get media consideration. An analogous rug-pull occurred earlier this yr with Mando, a cryptocurrency that used photos from Disney+’s Mandalorian TV present—with out permission from Disney, in fact.

Does this imply that traders have lastly discovered their lesson and gained’t spend money on shady cryptocurrency tasks anymore? That appears unlikely. Scam artists love the crypto area as a result of it’s extremely troublesome to distinguish the scammers from somebody who’s earnestly making an attempt to create a authentic cryptocurrency—maybe as a result of the thought of creating your personal foreign money is inherently fraudulent.

There’s a purpose conventional foreign money has largely been the area of governments all through recorded historical past. Everyone collaborating in a given society must agree {that a} foreign money is value one thing, and there are few establishments outdoors of presidency that may lend credibility to one thing so vital. Libertarians will let you know in any other case, however we’ll should disagree on this one.

Does this imply you may’t earn money buying and selling crypto? Obviously there are lots of people making actual {dollars} within the crypto area promoting “mainstream” cash like bitcoin and even smaller cash like Shiba Inu, which has skyrocketed in worth lately. But simply because individuals are being profitable at it in the present day doesn’t imply it’ll be round perpetually. Cryptocurrency will solely survive if individuals have religion that it’s actual cash. And that sentiment can change from everyday.

If you’re going to purchase cryptocurrency, crucial factor to look out for isn’t essentially the value. First, work out whether or not you may promote the coin after to procure it. If you may’t promote—just like the individuals who invested in SQUID found they will’t—it doesn’t matter how excessive the value goes, simply because it doesn’t matter how massive of a quantity somebody writes on Monopoly payments.

Cryptocurrency is solely value what another person is prepared to pay for it. And if the foundations say you may’t even promote, you’ve simply been scammed. Sorry, people.