Game over! ‘Squid Game’-inspired crypto scam collapses as price crashes from $2.8K to zero К основному контенту

Palau advances CBDC with Ripple in phase 2 of PSC program launch

The second phase of the PSC program will prioritize the development of a digital ecosystem and increased user engagement, emphasizing adherence to regulatory compliance. The Ministry of Finance of Palau officially launched the second phase of its Palau Stablecoin (PSC) program. Jay Hunter Anson, a cybersecurity consultant in Palau and adviser to the Ministry of Finance, confirmed the program’s second phase launch on Dec. 15 in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Anson said that Palau aims to extend its partnership with Ripple in phase two, allowing the PSC team to leverage Ripple’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform and technical expertise. PSC is a digital currency pegged to the United States dollar, which uses Ripple’s XRP Ledger.  Read more

Game over! ‘Squid Game’-inspired crypto scam collapses as price crashes from $2.8K to zero

Dubbed SQUID, the cryptocurrency had rallied by as much as 75,000% to cross over $2,850 but dropped to near zero on Nov. 1.

A cryptocurrency inspired by Netflix’s internationally hit TV show Squid Game scammed investors in what appears to be a $3.38-million “rug pull” scheme.

Dubbed SQUID, the cryptocurrency plunged to almost a fraction of a cent minutes after crossing over $2,850 at 09:35 UTC on Nov. 1. The deadly drop oed following a 75,000% bull run, showcasing a greater demand for SQUID among traders after its debut on Oct. 26.

At the core of the retail craze lay the popularity of Squid Game. The scammers promoted SQUID as a play-to-earn cryptocurrency inspired by the South Korean TV 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 won (~$38.7 million).

The marketing ploy helped push SQUID prices from $0.01 on Oct. 26 to over $38 on Sunday. The cryptocurrency then jumped to $90 on Nov. 1, ushering in a massive pumping round that pushed its price further to over $2,850, only to crash all the way down to $0.002 minutes later.

SQUID price pump and dump. Source: CoinMarketCap

Red flags

In the days leading up to the massive 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.

“The more people join, the larger reward pool will be (sic),” the Squid Game white paper read, adding: 

“Developers will take 10% of the entry fee with the remaining 90% given to the winner.”

Major news network CNBC also published the Squid Game cryptocurrency founders’ claims without omissions, insofar that it called SQUID the “very own brand” of the Netflix show.

The Squid Game cryptocurrency founders also said they were affiliated with the Netflix show as its official token partner. They also claimed that they had entered a strategic partnership with CoinGecko, a crypto data provider. However, in an interview with Cointelegraph, CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong refuted the claims, saying:

“[SQUID] did not meet our listing criteria, hence it will not be listed on CoinGecko. It’s most likely a scam.”

CoinMarketCap, a rival of CoinGecko, listed SQUID on its platform but warned visitors about the cryptocurrency’s dubious nature in a notice that read:

“There is growing evidence that this project has rugged. Please do your own due diligence and exercise extreme caution. This project, while clearly inspired by the Netflix show of the same name, is NOT affiliated with the official IP.”

Related: YouTube channels hacked and rebranded for livestreaming crypto scams

Meanwhile, analysts also noted that the Squid Game token founders had no profiles on LinkedIn, with Twitterati Crypto Tyrion ruling SQUID as a “100% rug pull.”

It now appears like a “game over” scenario for the SQUID bag holders. 

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Комментарии

Популярные сообщения из этого блога

North Korea's Lazarus Group masterminded $100M Harmony hack: FBI confirms

The FBI also confirmed earlier reports this month by figures such as ZachXBT that the hackers had started moving a large chunk of the funds around via privacy protocols. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed the Lazarus Group and APT38 as the culprits behind the $100 million Harmony Bridge Hack from June 2022. The North Korea-linked cyber group had long been suspected of being behind the attack but their involvement hadn’t been confirmed by authorities until now. According to a Jan. 23 statement, the FBI noted that “through our investigation, we were able to confirm that the Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with the DPRK , are responsible for the theft of $100 million of virtual currency from Harmony’s Horizon bridge.” The Harmony Bridge hack in 2022 was the result of security holes in Harmony’s Horizon Ethereum bridge which allowed the cyber attackers to swipe a number of assets stored in the bridge via 11 transactions. The FBI also outlined t

South Africa learns a hard crypto lesson amid fast growing demand

South African authorities will be keeping a close eye on the cryptocurrency space in 2021 in the wake of major scams and booming markets. Authorities in South Africa appear to be paying closer attention to the cryptocurrency space in 2021 in the wake of a major Bitcoin ( BTC ) Ponzi scheme and increased trading activity. As a result, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority has called for tighter controls of the crypto space following the collapse of what has been described as the biggest Ponzi scheme the country has ever seen. In December 2020, Mirror Trading International went into provisional liquidation after one of its directors allegedly skipped the country, taking with him access to a copious amount of Bitcoin that investors had entrusted to the company over the past few years. In January 2021, MTI claimed to have over 260,000 members around the world and had amassed 23,000 BTC of investor’s holdings, which is worth over $1 billion in today’s market. The South

Palau advances CBDC with Ripple in phase 2 of PSC program launch

The second phase of the PSC program will prioritize the development of a digital ecosystem and increased user engagement, emphasizing adherence to regulatory compliance. The Ministry of Finance of Palau officially launched the second phase of its Palau Stablecoin (PSC) program. Jay Hunter Anson, a cybersecurity consultant in Palau and adviser to the Ministry of Finance, confirmed the program’s second phase launch on Dec. 15 in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Anson said that Palau aims to extend its partnership with Ripple in phase two, allowing the PSC team to leverage Ripple’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform and technical expertise. PSC is a digital currency pegged to the United States dollar, which uses Ripple’s XRP Ledger.  Read more

Greenidge plans to expand mining operations to South Carolina

According to the crypto mining firm, the South Carolina facility has been capable of drawing 80 megawatts of power, two thirds of which is produced from zero carbon energy sources. Bitcoin mining company Greenidge Generation announced it would be starting operations in South Carolina as early as this year. In a Friday announcement, Greenidge said it would be operating in a carbon neutral crypto mining facility in the city of Spartanburg. The company said it had signed a letter of intent for a 10-year lease with printing firm LSC Communications’ location on the outskirts of the South Carolina city, where it plans to start mining crypto “in late 2021 or early 2022.” According to Greenidge, the location has been capable of drawing 80 megawatts (MW) of power, two thirds of which is produced from zero carbon sources including nuclear energy. Greenidge CEO Jeff Kirt said it was a step towards the company creating “environmentally sound Bitcoin mining” in the United States. The firm alr

100M euro digital bond was a CBDC test, says Banque de France

European financial institutions are using pilots to make a case for the digital euro. It turns out the 100 million euro digital bond issued by the European Investment Bank earlier this week was actually a trial of a European central bank-issued digital currency, or CBDC. An April 28 announcement from France’s central bank, Banque de France, revealed the digital bond was settled using a CBDC on a blockchain. The two year-bond was issued on the Ethereum public blockchain on April 27 and settled the following day, with a maturity date of April 28, 2023. The sale was led by Goldman Sachs, Santander and Société Générale. “From a technological standpoint, the experiment required the development and deployment of smart contracts under secured conditions, so that the Banque de France could issue and control the circulation of CBDC tokens and so that CBDC transfer occurred simultaneously with the delivery of securities tokens to the investors’ portfolio,” Banque de France said. The bank

Yearn.finance pleads arb traders to return funds after $1.4M multisig mishap

A Yearn contributor said the value lost came from “strictly protocol owned liquidity” in the protocol’s treasury and that customer funds weren’t impacted. Decentralized finance protocol Yearn.finance is hoping arbitrage traders will return $1.4 million in funds after a multisignature scripting error, resulting in a large amount of the protocol’s treasury being drained. “A faulty multisig script caused Yearn's entire treasury balance of 3,794,894 lp-yCRVv2 tokens to be swapped,” according to a Dec. 11 GitHub post by Yearn contributor “dudesahn.” The error occurred while Yearn was converting its yVault LP-yCurve (lp-yCRVv2) — earned from performance fees on vault harvests — into stablecoins on decentralized exchange CowSwap. Read more