A cryptocurrency based on — but not licensed by — the smash Netflix show Squid Game is smashing expectations.
The digital currency SQUID began trading Tuesday at just $0.01235. As of around 12:30 p.m. Friday, it was worth $10.41 — a gain of more than 82,000%.
That’s a market cap potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But there’s a catch.
For those traders with visions of the show’s giant piggy bank, take note: the crypto trading site CoinMarketCap warned potential investors, “We have received multiple reports that the users are not able to sell this token in [the online crypto exchange] Pancakeswap. Please exercise caution while trading!”
The New York Post notes the issue might be a mechanism within the currency’s creators that doesn’t allow so-called “pump and dump” activity for it.
So why was SQUID created? Evidently for a crypto-based online tournament called the Squid Game Project, which launches in November and promises to replicate the games on the popular show, with its crypto both required to play and at stake as prizes.
Unlike the show, however, SQUID’s organizers note, “we do not provide deadly consequences” for losing, declaring, “Your experience will only reflect on the joy of winning rewards and sorrow of losing money when the game [is] failed.”
Also unlike the show Squid Game, the jackpot isn’t limited to the $38.5 million. “The more people join, the larger [the] reward pool will be,” organizers promise.
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