SQUID ranks as one of the biggest crypto rug pulls
The SQUID coin is set to make a comeback one year after one of the biggest hiccups in crypto history, but its developers are still on the loose.
Launched on Binance SmartChain last year to great fanfare, the SQUID coin attracted more than 40,000 investors as it rose from $0.01 to around $3,000 in six days, before plunging to zero.
SQUID developers rug-pull
Developers released the SQUID project while a Netflix show called the Squid Game was rapidly growing in popularity, targeting GenZ and millennial investors looking for quick returns. Netflix confirmed that the project is not officially affiliated with the show.
According to Katherine Wooler at UK crypto firm Dacxi, the team took advantage of the Netflix show’s focus on gaming. In the Squid Game, adults with cash play children’s games for the chance to win a cash prize and gain worldwide fame. Likewise, the developers attracted investors by offering a game to earn money where they could earn orbs needed to sell SQUID.
After the coin price skyrocketed, the developer team behind the project drained all liquidity, making off with around $3.3 million. One Twitch streamer caught the carpet pull on a live stream in real time. In the video, the coin’s market cap dropped from $2.2 trillion to almost zero instantly.
Developers disappear after using Tornado Cash
The project had many red flags, including a website filled with grammatical errors and an anti-dumping mechanism that made it more difficult to sell SQUID coins.
At the time, Exodus CEO JP Richardson said this latest bit should have alerted investors.
“If your money has to be locked up, that made it pretty clear that it was a scam,” he said at the time.
Not long after the developers launched the project, they apparently took the website down. They also stopped communicating using most social media. They later posted a Telegram note claiming a hack.
“Someone is trying to hack our project these days. Not only the Twitter account but also our smart contract… Squid Game Dev doesn’t want to continue running the project as we are depressed from the scammers and [are] overwhelmed by stress.”
Tech publication Wired said it had sent an email to a support address in the project’s whitepaper, which also went unanswered.
BscScan, a Binance Smart Chain blockchain explorer, identified eight wallet addresses linked to the scam. One of the addresses, which holds five percent of all SQUID in circulation,
exchanged $3.38 million SQUID to BNB before sending the money through crypto mixer Tornado Cash.
Crypto exchange Binance launched an investigation into the project using a forensic tool and said it would report any findings to the police.
To date, neither Binance nor the police have identified the team behind the curtain.
SQUID is expected to pump soon
Yet, one year on, the SQUID coin, despite having no layer, continues to be traded speculatively. It has a market value of around $4.1 million. A community now runs the project, according to CoinMarketCap, and is completely decentralized. According to a Reddit user, investors believe SQUID’s price will increase significantly on its one-year anniversary. Another user said that this could happen when season two of the Squid Game TV series comes out.
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