By now, almost everyone on the planet has either seen the TV show Squid Game, or they’ve at least heard of it. But what many do not know is that some individuals decided to take advantage of this hype and create a Squid Game cryptocurrency.
As sad as it is, the Squid Game cryptocurrency is a prime example of why you should stay far away from certain altcoin projects. Although this project increased to almost $3,000 a coin, it did inevitably crash, and left those who invested with nothing as the developers disappeared.
To learn more about why this happened, and how you can avoid future cryptocurrency scams, keep reading, as losing your life savings in a scam altcoin is the last thing that you want to have happen in your life.
What is Squid Game?
Squid game is a Korean action/drama TV show about a bunch of people (456 to be exact) that find themselves in massive debt and unable to get out. Most of them have gambling problems, but others have issues like drug addiction or choosing the wrong path in life. Of course, there are some characters who are designed to be purposefully redeeming, such as Ali, a Pakistan immigrant who hasn’t been paid by his corrupt employer in 6 months, or Kang Sae-Byeok who needs money to rescue her parents from North Korea after the first brokers she hired stole her money.
Anyway, all of these characters are tossed together in a battle to the death to see who will get the prize money, 45.6B Won($38 million USD). There are a set of games that the winner must pass through in order to win the money. But beyond the games, the winner must also survive the hostile environment of living with the other players. This often leads to dire and sad consequences.
What is Squid Game Cryptocurrency?
The show quickly took the world by storm, as people devoured episode after episode of the series (which was often left as a cliffhanger to entice viewers). And thus, a group of people decided to take advantage of the hype and start a Squid Game cryptocurrency.
Although this may sound weird, this is just how most cryptocurrencies start out—they are just people with an idea. This is why it is so critical that you research any altcoin that you invest in before you buy it, because you really are investing in the people behind the project. This is what makes Bitcoin so unique, as there is no creator taking credit for the project. But that’s another story.
Squid Game cryptocurrency, called SQUID, had nothing behind it. If you go to the website and click on the whitepaper, you will find the whitepaper for Binance Smart Chain, rather than a token by the name SQUID. The creators of the coin also do not exist in any online realm. This is all bad news for investors, as it makes it easy for the creators to dip in the future.
The website for SQUID shows that the creators were really rolling with the idea of the show. They even offered a drawing you could enter to win the same amount of SQUID as the grand prize of Won in the show. But if you look more closely, it is clear that this token is a joke, as it even says that holders can “opt out of the game with a 50% vote” which is a quote from the show but means absolutely nothing in the cryptocurrency world. Either way, SQUID was never a real cryptocurrency project.
The SQUID Scam
Thus, it should come as no surprise when, on Monday, November 1st, the value of the SQUID coin suddenly crashed to zero as the people (whom no one knows) cashed out all of the invested funds and left with an approximate $2.50million USD. This clearly indicates that there was no real project behind the coin. Before this crash happened, the coin hit a high of $2,860 on CoinMarketCap. This has left anyone who has invested in SQUID with absolutely nothing. One man claims he lost his entire $28,000 in life savings in the coin.
How to Avoid Altcoin Scams
As sad as this story is, it is all too common in the altcoin world, which is why you MUST research any project you intend to invest in. Below are some tips of other things you should watch for in order to help you to avoid being scammed like those who invested in SQUID.
1. Research Any Coin Thoroughly
This doesn’t mean you do one Google search and look at a single website. You should look at multiple news stories, as well as the project website. Take a look at the whitepaper, see if it is legit. You should also look up the creators of the coin on social media. If a coin is lacking all of these things, run!
2. Watch for Natural Development
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and any viable altcoin won’t be either. If the coin is going up in a straight line, only up, with no natural plateaus or downward movement, this is a sign that something more sinister is happening behind the scenes.
3. Abnormal Appreciation
There are many cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, and Ethereum, which are up over 1000%. But remember, this happened after years and years of it being available. Although people want to believe that cryptocurrencies are a get-rich-quick scheme, they are not. Therefore you should watch the activity of any coin you are interested in. If it is going up a thousand percent in a single day, this is a sign that something is off.
Overall, the SQUID catastrophe could have been avoided had the investors researched the coin a bit before they began buying—after all, there really was nothing behind the coin. As sad as it is for the people that have lost everything, this is a common occurrence in the cryptocurrency world, and exactly what investors should be wary of before they begin investing their money in any project.
This article was brought to you by the Bitcoin Dice Game on MintDice. Originally posted for the MintDice Crypto News Blog.