A recipe for a financial scam: Create a crypto-based on a massively popular show (i.e. Squid Games), make it so people can only buy and not sell, pump it hard on social media — then run away with the money… True story.

Cryptocurrency, Squid GameSQUID

was launched on Oct. 26 and quickly soared from a penny to ~$2,800. But not even a week after launching, SQUID plunged to near zero as the creators pulled the plug on the project, making off with $2M.

Suspect: The crypto community suspected SQUID of being a scam — but SQUID preyed on retail investors missing out on meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Some research on SQUID and investors would have seen all the red flags…

• Able to buy but not sell the cryptocurrency.
• 3-week old dingy website filled with grammatical errors — now taken down (see archived site here).
• Founders weren’t on LinkedIn and its Twitter account blocked off tweet comments.

Worst off, many of the largest media companies covered SQUID with headlines like “new crypto SQUID soars a gazillion %” — giving little warning of its shortcomings.

Inspector Joe: Each cryptocurrency is originated with a research document (a.k.a white paper) — which explains the details of the crypto project (i.e. goal, technology, restrictions). See Ethereum’s and Shiba Inu’s.

SQUID’s white paper mentioned it had an anti-dumping tech where people couldn’t sell unless certain conditions were met.

High risk, no return: There are risks with any investment — but crypto, which is still filled with scams and hacks, is even riskier than traditional assets like stocks or bonds. Don’t risk what you can’t afford to lose and do your research.