Squid Game Token: The Token You Literally Could Not Sell
It pumped 75,000% in a week. Then the devs pulled the plug and nobody could sell.
In late October 2021, a token called SQUID appeared on Binance Smart Chain, capitalizing on the massive popularity of Netflix's Squid Game series. It had no connection to Netflix or the show. That did not matter.
The token surged from $0.01 to $2,861 in a single week. A 75,000% gain. Media outlets including BBC, CNBC, and CoinDesk covered the phenomenon. Millions of dollars in trading volume poured in daily.
There was one problem nobody noticed until it was too late. The token had an "anti-dump mechanism" baked into the smart contract. Buyers could purchase SQUID freely, but they could not sell. The only way to exit was through a "play to earn" game that did not exist. It was a roach motel: tokens checked in, but they could not check out.
On November 1, the developers executed the rug pull. The liquidity was drained in approximately five minutes. The token crashed from $2,861 to $0.0007. The developers made off with an estimated $3.3 million, though some estimates run higher.
The Squid Game rug pull was notable for several reasons. It was covered by mainstream media before the crash, giving it unusual visibility. The sell-lock mechanism was visible in the smart contract code, but most buyers never checked. And it happened in real time, with people watching the chart collapse on live streams.
The anonymous developers were never identified or caught.
The Aftermath
The Squid Game token became the most visible rug pull in crypto history because mainstream media covered it before and after the crash. It taught millions of non-crypto people what a 'rug pull' means.
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