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SQUID Token Collapses as Developers ‘Overwhelmed with Stress’

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Fredrik Vold

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Fredrik Vold

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Last updated:

October 23, 2023

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Source: A video screenshot, Youtube/Netflix

A token known as SQUID, based on an alleged play-to-earn game named after Netflix’s drama series Squid Game, has crashed to near zero after a massive pump last week. Meanwhile, the team behind the token, which raised multiple red flags, is throwing in the towel, saying they are “depressed” and “overwhelmed with stress.”

At 16:00 UTC on Monday, SQUID was down by 99.99% per data from CoinMarketCap, trading at a price of USD 0.00317. The 24-hour trading volume surpassed USD 15m.

The collapse in price comes as the token’s website, Twitter and Medium accounts have all become unavailable, with Twitter citing “unusual activity” as its reason for restricting the account.

On the project’s Telegram channel, which does not support two-way communication, the team behind SQUID said on Monday that that “someone is trying to hack our project,” and that developers do not want to continue working on it as they are “depressed from the scammers and is overwhelmed with stress.”

Source: SQUID official channel on Telegram

Over the past week, the squid game token came from nowhere to surge by more than 230,000% in price. Sadly for buyers, however, the token was only traded on the PancakeSwap decentralized exchange, where users said it was impossible to sell the token after having bought it.

Not surprisingly, the price of the token could only move one way – up.

Cryptonews.com reported on the token last week, and warned readers that the token and the related game is likely a scam. The warning was based on multiple red flags, including what appeared to be fake team members and fake partnerships listed on its website.

Several mainstream media outlets, however, did not see the red flags, with for instance CNBC being criticized in the community for failing to expose the project as what it really was:

The double standards in the mainstream financial media’s reporting on SQUID was also pointed out by Dominic Frisby, comedian, and author of several books on bitcoin and economics:

Interesting that mainstream news is forever going on about the risks of bitcoin (and there are many), yet CNBC, BBC, Business Insider, Yahoo, Bloomberg et al were all hyping $squid.
— Dominic Frisby (@DominicFrisby) November 1, 2021