(New York) Drawn to its name, Squid Game, like the hit Netflix series, individuals bought millions of dollars in a new cryptocurrency that then plummeted in value.
Announced just two weeks ago, the launch of this digital currency took place on October 21. To promote their product, the creators had used without permission the imagery of Squid Game, South Korean series that has become, according to Netflix, the most watched new program in the history of the platform.
The value of the Squid Game, which stood for SQUID, quickly grew exponentially. From around $ 0.7 at launch, the unit rose to $ 2,856 on Monday, according to specialist site CoinMarketCap.
But the price of the Squid Game came down as quickly as it had gone up and was only worth $ 0.003 on Tuesday.
In a notice posted on its site, CoinMarketCap said savers who bought SQUID claimed they could not sell it or convert it to another digital currency or dollars.
Several specialized sites have posted transaction reports that seem to show that the creators of this cryptocurrency, on the other hand, converted several million dollars (between 2.5 and 3.5 according to estimates) from SQUID into other currencies. .
It was these massive withdrawals that caused the value of the currency to plummet, leaving savers with a currency that was virtually worthless.
This practice, often nicknamed “Rug Pull” (the carpet is removed from under the feet of investors), is very widespread in the world of virtual currencies. She has so far never been the subject of any known criminal proceedings.
The project site has been taken offline and all accounts opened on social networks by the organizers, about which very little information has circulated, have been closed.