Since its release in September, Squid Game, a Netflix series, has attracted over 111 million viewers and has gained the title of Netflix’s largest original-series launch. In the weeks following the show’s release, on October 26th, 2021, a cryptocurrency meme coin called “Squid Game Token” was released to be traded at one cent per token on the crypto market. The token’s price soared over 23,000,000 percent within a week, but this trend did not last long. On November 1, 2021, according to CoinMarketCap.com, the cost of Squid Token jumped from $38 to an all-time high of $2,861.80 within a couple of hours. After fifteen minutes, however, the price plummeted to $0.0007. By then, a total of 720 million Squid Tokens were sold. Transaction records showed that the anonymous developer abandoned the project and cashed out $3.4 million.

But first, how did this meme coin skyrocket to the price of $2800 from 1 cent in just one week? First, the original buyers thought that the token was directly related to the Squid Game show. Secondly, as the price started to grow, media sources began spreading information about the token and its significant growth. Lastly, the greed of the investors led them to believe that the meme token had the potential to be a huge money-making opportunity, which increased demand and the price.

Thousands of meme coins exist in the crypto market, but very few can jump to prices as high as $2800. Squid Token is now the second most recent coin, the other being Dogecoin, to reach such a high price. However, for coins to even begin to increase in price, they need to gain attention. Even though the Squid Token was just like any other meme coin on the market, the show’s massive hype convinced people that this newly tradable coin was valuable. Squid Token started to gain popularity as investors spread the word of this new coin on social media. 

Ever since the stock-shorting incident of AMC and Gamestop stocks, where prices skyrocketed and later plummeted, people on social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit have been skeptical about leaks or investments online. But when news outlets and mainstream media caught onto the new coin, Squid Token blew up. Media outlets used extravagant numbers such as “86,000%” or “23 million percent” to gather more clicks and attention. These misleading titles led to the previously unknown coin’s skyrocketing to a peak of $2,800 per token. 

Lastly, what drove most people to put money into the Squid Token was greed. In contrast to what most people believe, the developers of Squid Token had explicitly stated that the token would be a “crypto play” and that people would not be able to sell their coin due to their “innovative anti-dumping system.” This information was all stated on the token’s website and its “white paper.” A “white paper” is a required document that summarizes the coin and the reasoning behind its creation. In the case of Squid Token, the first sentence of the “white paper” stated, “The Squid Games project is a crypto play to earn platform inspired by the Korean hit series on Netflix about a deadly tournament of children’s games.” The coin creators were not secretive about their plans to perform a rug pull. Even the token’s website said that people who invested could not sell their coins. They would only be able to sell them in small increments. The developers called this an “innovative anti-dumping measure” to prevent people from selling most of their coins or pumping and dumping. The inability to sell the coin gave the illusion that the token was constantly increasing in price, which was spread by the mainstream media, generating more hype. 

The main driving force behind the investors’ willingness to believe these false statements is the fear of missing out. The greed of others who saw this as a money-making opportunity led to overlooking crucial details about the Squid Token money scheme. The evidence was given to them on a silver platter. Still, their greed and peer pressure from seeing so many people investing in the token caused many investors to overlook the facts and repercussions of such an investment. Scams and money schemes have happened several times in the crypto market, and even scams with names as big as Elon Musk have been involved. Earlier, several Twitter accounts of celebrities were hacked and posted a similar message about sending them Bitcoin to double their money. Again, people fell into this trap without thinking of the possible repercussions and the suspiciousness of why several celebrities were willing to give away their money for free. 

When it comes to making investments in the crypto market, one can never be too careful. The Squid Token situation truly mimics aspects of the Squid Game show. People jumped at the opportunity to make a large amount of money out of greed without reading or knowing the possible consequences.