Chinese Loses Entire Fortune on 'Ojingeo Game' Coin... "How Can I Support My Family?"

Suspected 'Rug Pull', a Type of Cryptocurrency Scam
Coin Price Plummets Near $0 After Developers Sell Off

An investor who invested in a cryptocurrency based on the popular Netflix drama "Squid Game" lost their entire fortune. The photo shows a scene from "Squid Game." / Photo by Netflix

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] The story of a Chinese investor who lost his entire fortune after investing in a cryptocurrency based on the popular Netflix drama "Squid Game" has been introduced. It appears that this investor suffered losses from a type of cryptocurrency scam known as a "rug pull."

According to the U.S. financial media outlet CNBC on the 2nd (local time), a recent investor from China named Bernard invested his lifetime savings of $28,000 (approximately 33 million KRW) in "Squid Coin" and lost it all.

Squid Coin is a cryptocurrency named after the English title of the drama Squid Game. The developers claimed to be inspired by the globally popular drama and explained that they would host the games featured in the drama online, using this coin as the entry fee.

Squid Coin was first launched on the cryptocurrency market on the 26th of last month. The coin, which was trading at 9 cents (about 105 KRW) per unit at the time, surged more than 20 times in just one day to $2.22 (about 2,600 KRW).

Squid Coin surged more than 20 times in value within about 24 hours, but then plummeted close to zero as the developers withdrew the investment funds. / Photo by Internet Community Capture

Bernard, one of the coin’s investors, tried to sell the coin to realize profits, but at that moment, the exchange’s sell function was blocked. Subsequently, the price of Squid Coin plummeted to zero, and Bernard lost his entire fortune.

In an interview with CNBC, Bernard said, "I bought Squid Coin because Squid Game was very popular," and added, "I don’t know how to recover my losses. I have lost all my assets and am now in a crisis where I cannot support my family."

Experts believe that Bernard and other Squid Coin investors were likely victims of a "rug pull" scam. According to IT specialized media such as Gizmodo, a rug pull is a scam where developers suddenly halt the project after launching a cryptocurrency on the market, withdraw all the invested funds, and disappear.

After the value of Squid Coin crashed, its official website and social media accounts were all shut down.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a rug pull scam has occurred in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Previously, when "JINDOGE," a coin modeled after the popular cryptocurrency Dogecoin, appeared, the developer sold about 15% of the total supply at once, causing the price to plunge nearly 97%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.