Squid Game Token was based on—but not affiliated with—the runaway Netflix series of the same name. The coin harnessed the zeitgeist for the Netflix series Squid Game by apparently offering obsessed gamers access to a play-to-earn game. The project’s whitepaper, published on its now-defunct website, promised big things for investors but sounded awfully like a Ponzi scheme. “The more people join, the larger the reward pool will be,” it promised. Just after 1:38 pm UTC on November 1, 2021, $3.36 million that had been invested into Squid Game coin was yanked out of the project by its creators. The liquidity pool in the exchange disappeared in an instant, and within 10 minutes, the coin was almost worthless, trading at one-third of a cent.

Eight wallets out of the 43,455 addresses tied to Squid Games coins hold more than 1 percent of all tokens in circulation, according to BscScan. One such account, tagged by Ethereum analytics company Etherscan as an account that definitely pulled the rug out from under investors, held 5 percent of all the tokens. That same account transferred $3.36 million to another wallet.