The Squid Game cryptocurrency has collapsed due to an apparent scam.

Squid token’s website and social accounts vanished after prices spiked to more than 310,000% in value, then rapidly plummeted to $O in value on Monday morning. 

The hucksters behind the scam have officially made off with an estimated $3.38 million, a kind of theft called a “rug pull” by crypto investors, which is when creators swiftly cash out their coins for real money. 

“It is one of many schemes by which naïve retail investors are drawn in and exploited by malevolent crypto promoters,” Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad explained to the BBC.

“In fact, open pump and dump schemes are rampant in the crypto world, with investors often jumping in with eyes wide open, perhaps hoping that they can ride the wave and dump their holdings for a quick profit before prices collapse,” he added.

It can be recalled that the crypto coin was launched last week, but afterwards netizens began to notice red flags such as the strange spelling and grammatical errors.

Squid, which dubbed itself as a “play-to-earn cryptocurrency”, had also received backlash for not permitting investors to resell their tokens, as reported by BBC.

One may note that “Play-to-earn” cryptocurrency is a business model where users  play a game and earn cryptocurrency at the same time.

*Cover Photo/Thumbnail Photo from Netflix