Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct a typographical error.
The ghost of “Squid Games” scam tokens returned as the makers renewed the popular Netflix survival thriller series for a second season on Friday.
What Happened: With the hype around the show reaching a fever peak, a handful of cryptocurrencies with dubious origins started to circulate in the market, preying on unsuspecting traders.
Blockchain security company PeckShield warned users about a scam-tainted token called Squid that was launched on the Base blockchain on Dec. 27. The token’s deployer was its largest holder and has plunged 99% since launch.
“Beware of scam #SquidGame tokens circulating in the wild,” the on-chain sleuth stated.
A simple search for the term Squid Game on price tracking tool CoinMarketCap returned a long list of cryptocurrencies named after the show. However, almost all of them included a warning about the risks involved and the need to proceed with caution.
One such token named Squid Game was up over 316% in the last 24 hours, spurring a market capitalization of $4.8 million as of this writing. In comparison, blue-chip coins like Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) were down 1.4% and 1%, respectively.
A flurry of coins named Dalmatian has also surfaced in response to the scam token of the same name revealed in one of the episodes of the new season. The coin was down more than 96% since launch.
See Also: Bitcoin, Dogecoin Trail These 2024 Crypto Champions: Here Are The Top Performers Of The Year
Why It Matters: The trend of exploiting the show’s name to spawn fraudulent tokens started after the show’s debut in 2021. Tokens were pumped and dumped in a jiffy, much like they are now, leaving many high and dry.
The popularity of the show has also been tapped by fraudsters in China to target the financially vulnerable amid the country’s economic slowdown. These scams offer prize money, debt restructuring, and other deceptive schemes, often promoted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
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