Squid Game 2 sparks crypto coin frenzy: Pump or dump?

Ahead of the long-awaited season 2 release of the popular South Korean Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) show Squid Game, it has sparked a sort of a frenzy in the cryptocurrency market, which has witnessed the appearance of new assets and reawakening of the old assets inspired by the show.

Specifically, one of these tokens is the one that was allegedly the vehicle of a rug pull back in 2021, although subsequently, its revived CoinMarketCap page stated the project had migrated to a new contract address, “now ostensibly run by the community after the initial rugging allegations.”

Origins of a rug pull

As a reminder, investors in the ‘original’ Squid Game (SQUID) token, which by October 2021 had soared over 40,000% since its launch, faced problems trying to sell their SQUID, and its value crashed to zero by November 1, 2021, leading to significant financial losses and rug pull claims.

In January 2023, Finbold reported that investigative technology journalist Janhoi McGregor and tech expert Ciaran O’Connor managed to uncover the whereabouts of the scam’s originators, although the alleged wrongdoers managed to escape before coming face-to-face with the investigators.

‘Original’ SQUID revived, and more

However, recently, this token has risen from its years-long slumber with an increase of over 60% across the week, currently standing at $0.01367, although it is still much lower than the $0.02432 it reached in November 2023 with the release of a reality show Squid Game: The Challenge. 

Meanwhile, another crypto token, also called Squid Game (SQUID), which appeared in November 2023, has also experienced a mind-blowing price increase in recent weeks, gaining 12% on the day, growing 189.73% in the past week, and recording a whopping advance of 359.26% on its monthly chart.

Meanwhile, many other crypto assets bearing the Squid Game name have launched, including the Squid Game token on the BSC chain, Squid Game 2 (SQUID2), Squid Game 2.0 (SQUID), and others, as the new season of the popular show is about to launch on December 26.

Is another rug pull on the horizon?

All things considered, the new season of the popular show has expectedly sparked a crypto frenzy among the tokens inspired by it, and it would not be entirely unexpected for scammers to try and abuse it for their personal gain as they have done before.

That said, a number of these tokens might represent an ideal opportunity to earn a profit, as witnessed recently by savvy traders of other meme coins, one of which managed to turn a mere $650 into $67,000 in just seven hours by trading SUNDOG. However, extreme caution is necessary.