SQUID game rose — and then fell. Check out how often people watched the token ride its absurd price rollercoaster on CoinMarketCap before the scam news broke.
Launched in late October, the Squid Game (SQUID) token immediately garnered an incredible amount of attention from the community — drawing a great deal of this momentum thanks to the wildly popular (and unaffiliated) Netflix show of the same name.
This pushed the value of the token to ever greater highs, seeing it climb from essentially nothing, up to an all-time high value of almost $2,900 per token. All of this within just one week.
At the height of its popularity, its market cap reached an astonishing $2 trillion — which is close to the total value of all other cryptocurrencies in existence.
Hundreds of investors helped to promote the scam across social media, some spurred on by the “greater fool” theory and hoping that increased attention would further grow the value of their SQUID holdings, and others really believing that the token was in some way connected to their favorite new Netflix binge.
Then, it all came crashing down. The SQUID developers pulled all liquidity from decentralized exchanges, stealing around $3 million from investors who had traded the token. Understandably, the price tanked to essentially zero, and SQUID holders were left with tokens they could not sell.
During this one week period, we noticed a gradual increase in page views for the SQUID token page on CoinMarketCap, which correlated with its rapidly increasing price. Moreover, a strong correlation was observed between the number of daily page views and the daily trading volume — both of which peaked on Nov. 1, just before the developers siphoned the liquidity.
The sudden surge in trading volume also placed SQUID into the trending list on several DEX trackers, including DEXtools — further adding to the FOMO.
The lesson learned here? Always do your due diligence. Absolute hype is not always an indicator of success, and it can mask severe underlying problems or suspicious activity — like the onslaught of reports from users that couldn’t sell their tokens prior to the rug pull.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) can temporarily blind investors to the truth and can create time pressure that prevents them from investigating or recognizing blatant red flags. If at all possible, FOMO should not form part of an investment strategy.
This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the success or authenticity of any project, we aim to act as a neutral informational resource for end-users.
