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{"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"bdedab7d-a964-492a-b1dc-2b04025ea98f","kind":"publish","page_slug":"squid-game-token","published_at":"2026-05-31T07:00:11.525Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Squid Game Token","sections":[{"content":"The SQUID token launched on PancakeSwap, a Binance Smart Chain decentralized exchange, on or around October 20–26, 2021, capitalizing on the worldwide cultural phenomenon of Netflix's Squid Game series, which had become the platform's most-watched show in September 2021. The project's website and whitepaper promoted a purported play-to-earn gaming platform inspired by the show's survival-game premise, claiming that token holders would be able to participate in six online mini-games mirroring the series — including Red Light Green Light and the Glass Bridge — where players could wager and earn tokens. The whitepaper also introduced a secondary token called 'Marbles' (MARBLE), which was designated as the in-game currency required to enter specific games and, critically, as a prerequisite to unlock the ability to sell SQUID tokens. None of these games were ever developed or launched. The project's website was registered less than a month before launch, and the whitepaper contained numerous grammatical and spelling errors that observers later cited as early indicators of a hastily assembled fraudulent operation. The project bore no official affiliation with Netflix or the show's creators and never disclosed any such disclaimer in its marketing materials.","heading":"Project Origin and Launch","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Squid Game Token Crashes; Developers Say They've Left the Project — CoinDesk","type":"news","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/11/01/squid-game-token-crashes-developers-say-theyve-left-the-project"},{"credibility":2,"name":"5 Key Highlights from Squid Game Token's Whitepaper — Invezz","type":"news","url":"https://invezz.com/news/2021/10/29/5-key-highlights-from-squid-game-tokens-whitepaper/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Squid Game Crypto Scam: How the 2021 Rug Pull Changed Exchange Security — Bitget Academy","type":"news","url":"https://www.bitget.com/academy/squid-game-crypto-sc"}]},{"content":"Blockchain security researchers examining the SQUID token's smart contract identified two embedded functions that together constituted the mechanism of fraud. The first function gave the contract's deployer exclusive permission to drain funds from any linked liquidity pools. The second function was coded to prevent any address other than the deployer's from executing a sell transaction on PancakeSwap. The project publicly described this as an 'anti-dump mechanism' in its whitepaper, framing it as a protective feature for investors. In practice, the mechanism operated as a one-way valve: tokens could be freely purchased but could not be sold back to the market by any holder other than the scammers themselves. The MARBLE token requirement — which would theoretically unlock selling rights for regular investors — was never fulfilled because the games that would have distributed MARBLE tokens were never built. On-chain analysis conducted by TRM Labs confirmed that 'the contracts were coded in such a manner that selling the token was not practically possible for anyone other than the scammers.' CoinTelegraph first reported publicly that users were unable to sell as the price was still surging, providing a documented warning that was widely overlooked. FTI Consulting's subsequent forensic blockchain analysis of the smart contract corroborated that the source code explicitly reserved the sell function for the developers.","heading":"Anti-Sell Smart Contract Mechanism","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Users Unable to Sell Squid Game Token Clocking 45,000% Gains — CoinTelegraph","type":"news","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/users-not-able-to-sell-squid-game-token-clocking-45-000-gains"},{"credibility":2,"name":"On the Trail of the Squid Game Scammers — TRM Labs","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Squid Game on the Blockchain — FTI Consulting","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.fticonsulting.com/insights/articles/squid-game-blockchain"}]},{"content":"At approximately 09:35 UTC (5:35 AM ET) on November 1, 2021, the SQUID token's price collapsed from a peak of $2,861 to approximately $0.0035 in under five minutes. The developers executed the exit by invoking the contract function that permitted them to drain all liquidity from the PancakeSwap pool, converting their SQUID holdings and pooled BNB into approximately $3.38 million in proceeds. Within minutes of the liquidity drain, the project's website was taken offline, its Telegram channel was deleted, and its Twitter account was restricted by the platform following a flood of fraud reports. CoinTelegraph and CoinDesk documented the crash in real time. On-chain analysis by TRM Labs established that on November 1 alone, 55 deposits were made into Tornado Cash — a cryptocurrency mixing service — and then consolidated into a single address, demonstrating an immediate and deliberate laundering operation. TRM Labs' subsequent cross-chain tracing identified that at least 2,693 ETH (approximately $11.1 million at the time) passed through Tornado Cash and other obfuscation layers before reaching virtual asset service providers, suggesting that the $3.38 million figure cited by contemporaneous reports reflects only a portion of the total proceeds extracted, with the broader connected scheme potentially netting the operators upward of $19 million across multiple related rug pulls.","heading":"The November 1, 2021 Rug Pull","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Game Over: Squid Game-Inspired Crypto Scam Collapses as Price Crashes from $2.8K to Zero — CoinTelegraph","type":"news","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/game-over-squid-game-inspired-crypto-scam-collapses-as-price-crashes-from-2-8k-to-zero"},{"credibility":2,"name":"On the Trail of the Squid Game Scammers — TRM Labs","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Squid Game Cryptocurrency Scammers Make Off With $3.3 Million — Gizmodo","type":"news","url":"https://gizmodo.com/squid-game-cryptocurrency-scammers-make-off-with-2-1-m-1847972824"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Squid Game Token Price Crashes From $2,800 to Zero — Benzinga","type":"news","url":"https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/21/11/23794410/squid-game-token-price-crashes-from-2-800-to-zero-minutes-after-twitter-restricts-official"}]},{"content":"Throughout its operational period, the SQUID project disclosed no verifiable identities for any team member. The whitepaper listed no founders, developers, or advisors by name, and the project's communication channels — website, Telegram, Twitter — were managed by anonymous or pseudonymous accounts. Standard due-diligence signals that investors and journalists might have applied, such as LinkedIn profiles, prior project histories, or third-party KYC verification, were entirely absent. CBS News reported that after the collapse, 'promoters of the cryptocurrency could no longer be reached.' The CoinDesk article published at the time of the crash noted that the project's website was registered less than one month before launch and that its Medium blog, the sole source of project updates, was also taken down. As of the time of investigation, no law enforcement agency has publicly identified the individuals behind the scheme. TRM Labs' on-chain forensics traced fund flows through Tornado Cash but were unable to attribute them to named individuals, and the report concluded that 'these clues have proved insufficient to identify the culprits or reunite victims with their funds.' The Binance exchange publicly stated it was investigating and considered the project a scam but announced no arrests.","heading":"Anonymous Team and Absence of KYC","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"'Squid Game' Crypto Coin Promoters Vanish With Investor Millions in 'Rug Pull' Scam — CBS News","type":"news","url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/squid-game-cryptocurrency-rug-pull-scam/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Binance Is Investigating Squid Game Token, Considers It a Scam — CoinDesk","type":"news","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/03/binance-is-investigating-squid-game-token-considers-it-a-scam-report"},{"credibility":2,"name":"On the Trail of the Squid Game Scammers — TRM Labs","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"}]},{"content":"Prior to the collapse, CoinMarketCap — which had listed the SQUID token and thereby provided it a degree of implied legitimacy — appended a warning to the token's page after receiving investor reports of an inability to sell. The warning read: 'There is growing evidence that this project has been rugged.' CoinMarketCap also noted that it had not been able to verify the project's market capitalization data, displaying red warning triangles on the listing. Despite these notices, the token's price continued to climb, and significant inflows continued from new buyers. CoinTelegraph published a news article on October 30, 2021 — two days before the collapse — explicitly reporting that users were unable to sell their SQUID tokens, which represented a clear, public disclosure of the anti-sell mechanism. This article was available during the period when the price surged from thousands of percent to its peak, yet buyer demand did not materially abate. Observers also noted that the project's whitepaper contained spelling and grammatical errors, that the website domain had been registered only weeks prior to launch, and that the project claimed no verifiable affiliation with Netflix despite the obvious branding overlap.","heading":"CoinMarketCap Warnings and Ignored Red Flags","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Binance Investigates Squid Game-Themed Crypto Scam — CoinMarketCap Academy","type":"news","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/binance-investigates-squid-game-themed-crypto-scam"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Users Unable to Sell Squid Game Token Clocking 45,000% Gains — CoinTelegraph","type":"news","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/users-not-able-to-sell-squid-game-token-clocking-45-000-gains"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Warning: Multiple Squid Game Token Investors Reportedly Can't Sell SQUID — Finbold","type":"news","url":"https://finbold.com/warning-multiple-squid-game-token-investors-reportedly-cant-sell-squid/"}]},{"content":"During the token's rapid price appreciation, multiple major media outlets published articles covering the extraordinary percentage gains without adequate risk disclosures. BBC News, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Business Insider, and Fortune all published stories describing how the Squid Game-themed token had surged by tens of thousands of percent within days. These articles focused predominantly on the price performance and cultural novelty rather than the documented inability of holders to sell — a critical omission given that CoinTelegraph had already reported on the sell restriction. The NBC News coverage after the collapse noted that investors cited the mainstream media's attention as a source of false reassurance. Investor Craig Tinker, for example, stated to reporters that the press coverage had led him to believe the project was legitimate before he invested $300. The media coverage did not allege any official connection between SQUID and Netflix, and some articles did include disclosures about crypto volatility, but none prominently highlighted the sell restriction that was already publicly documented. This episode is frequently cited in subsequent industry commentary as an example of uncritical financial media amplifying a fraudulent scheme during its operational phase.","heading":"Media Coverage That Amplified the Scam","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Squid Game Crypto Loses Virtually All Its Value Overnight After Huge Spikes — Fortune","type":"news","url":"https://fortune.com/2021/11/01/squid-game-crypto-collapse-scam/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Investors Call Scam After Collapse of New Cryptocurrency Squid — NBC News","type":"news","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/squid-game-crypto-collapse-pushes-investors-cry-scam-rcna4399"},{"credibility":3,"name":"How Squid Game's Global Fame Sparked a Scam That Duped Investors with a Fake Token Worth Millions — Koimoi","type":"news","url":"https://www.koimoi.com/korean/how-squid-games-global-fame-sparked-a-fake-token-worth-millions/"}]},{"content":"TRM Labs conducted a detailed post-mortem blockchain investigation tracing the movement of stolen funds. The analysis found that on November 1, 2021, the SQUID token was swapped to Wrapped BNB (WBNB), then to native BNB, and that 55 individual deposits were made into Tornado Cash within a single day, subsequently routed into a single consolidation address. The use of Tornado Cash — a well-documented cryptocurrency mixing service — was consistent with deliberate obfuscation of the fund trail. TRM Labs further linked the SQUID operators to two additional rug pulls on other projects, estimating the combined total across the three schemes at approximately 35,025 BNB, equivalent to approximately $19.3 million at November 2021 BNB prices. At least 2,693 ETH (approximately $11.1 million) was traced reaching virtual asset service providers after traversing the mixer and Compound Finance as an additional obfuscation layer. No funds were publicly confirmed to have been seized or returned to victims. FTI Consulting produced a separate blockchain forensic visualization of the SQUID transaction network, demonstrating over 1,039 direct and indirect connections in the token's transaction graph. No civil or criminal recovery action has been publicly announced as of the date of this investigation.","heading":"On-Chain Forensics and Fund Recovery","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"On the Trail of the Squid Game Scammers — TRM Labs","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Squid Game on the Blockchain — FTI Consulting","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.fticonsulting.com/insights/articles/squid-game-blockchain"}]},{"content":"CBS News reported that more than 43,000 investors purchased the SQUID token during its operational period, all of whom were left holding tokens of zero practical value after the liquidity drain. The token's price, which had been approximately $0.01 at launch and peaked at $2,861, settled at a fraction of a cent with no functional market remaining. Because the Binance Smart Chain is a permissionless blockchain, no central authority could freeze funds or reverse the transactions. The Nasdaq and Motley Fool both published post-mortem investor-education articles citing the SQUID token as a case study in the dangers of anonymous teams, unverifiable whitepapers, and the absence of liquidity locks. The scam is now a regularly cited example in crypto investor due-diligence guides, regulatory commentary, and academic discussions of smart contract fraud. As of 2025, a separate project has re-used the SQUID Game Token branding, prompting Finbold to publish a fresh warning to investors that the new token is unaffiliated with the 2021 scam but carries its own risks.","heading":"Investor Impact and Aftermath","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"'Squid Game' Crypto Coin Promoters Vanish With Investor Millions in 'Rug Pull' Scam — CBS News","type":"news","url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/squid-game-cryptocurrency-rug-pull-scam/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Squid Game Crypto Creators Steal Millions in Rug Pull. Here's How to Avoid Scams — Nasdaq","type":"news","url":"https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/squid-game-crypto-creators-steal-millions-in-rug-pull.-heres-how-to-avoid-scams-2021-11-03"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Caution: New SQUID Game Token Emerges After 2021 Rug Pull — Finbold","type":"news","url":"https://finbold.com/caution-new-squid-game-token-emerges-after-2021-rug-pull/"}]}],"sources_used":[{"name":"2021 Squid Game Cryptocurrency Scam — Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Squid_Game_cryptocurrency_scam"},{"name":"On the Trail of the Squid Game Scammers — TRM Labs","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"},{"name":"Squid Game on the Blockchain — FTI Consulting","type":"onchain","url":"https://www.fticonsulting.com/insights/articles/squid-game-blockchain"},{"name":"Squid Game Token Crashes; Developers Say They've Left the Project — CoinDesk","type":"news","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/11/01/squid-game-token-crashes-developers-say-theyve-left-the-project"},{"name":"Binance Is Investigating Squid Game Token, Considers It a Scam — CoinDesk","type":"news","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/03/binance-is-investigating-squid-game-token-considers-it-a-scam-report"},{"name":"Users Unable to Sell Squid Game Token Clocking 45,000% Gains — CoinTelegraph","type":"news","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/users-not-able-to-sell-squid-game-token-clocking-45-000-gains"},{"name":"Game Over: Squid Game-Inspired Crypto Scam Collapses — CoinTelegraph","type":"news","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/game-over-squid-game-inspired-crypto-scam-collapses-as-price-crashes-from-2-8k-to-zero"},{"name":"'Squid Game' Crypto Coin Promoters Vanish With Investor Millions — CBS News","type":"news","url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/squid-game-cryptocurrency-rug-pull-scam/"},{"name":"Squid Game Cryptocurrency Scammers Make Off With $3.3 Million — Gizmodo","type":"news","url":"https://gizmodo.com/squid-game-cryptocurrency-scammers-make-off-with-2-1-m-1847972824"},{"name":"Squid Game Crypto Loses Virtually All Its Value Overnight — Fortune","type":"news","url":"https://fortune.com/2021/11/01/squid-game-crypto-collapse-scam/"},{"name":"Investors Call Scam After Collapse of New Cryptocurrency Squid — NBC News","type":"news","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/squid-game-crypto-collapse-pushes-investors-cry-scam-rcna4399"},{"name":"Squid Game Crypto Creators Steal Millions in Rug Pull — Nasdaq","type":"news","url":"https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/squid-game-crypto-creators-steal-millions-in-rug-pull.-heres-how-to-avoid-scams-2021-11-03"},{"name":"Squid Game Token Price Crashes From $2,800 to Zero — Benzinga","type":"news","url":"https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/21/11/23794410/squid-game-token-price-crashes-from-2-800-to-zero-minutes-after-twitter-restricts-official"},{"name":"Binance Investigates Squid Game-Themed Crypto Scam — CoinMarketCap Academy","type":"news","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/binance-investigates-squid-game-themed-crypto-scam"},{"name":"Warning: Multiple Squid Game Token Investors Reportedly Can't Sell SQUID — Finbold","type":"news","url":"https://finbold.com/warning-multiple-squid-game-token-investors-reportedly-cant-sell-squid/"},{"name":"Caution: New SQUID Game Token Emerges After 2021 Rug Pull — Finbold","type":"news","url":"https://finbold.com/caution-new-squid-game-token-emerges-after-2021-rug-pull/"},{"name":"Squid Game Crypto Scam: How the 2021 Rug Pull Changed Exchange Security — Bitget Academy","type":"news","url":"https://www.bitget.com/academy/squid-game-crypto-sc"},{"name":"How Squid Game's Success Led To One of Biggest Rug Pulls In 2021 — CoinMarketCap Academy","type":"news","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/ae209bd2-6cd9-41ea-b6e5-87db9b32d68e"}],"summary":"Squid Game Token (SQUID) was a fraudulent Binance Smart Chain token launched in late October 2021 that exploited the global popularity of Netflix's Squid Game series. The anonymous developers embedded a smart contract mechanism preventing any investor from selling their tokens while reserving that ability exclusively for themselves. On November 1, 2021, they drained approximately $3.38 million in liquidity within minutes, crashing the price from a peak of $2,861 to nearly zero, then deleted all project communications and disappeared.","timeline":[{"date":"2021-10-20","event":"SQUID token deployed on Binance Smart Chain and begins trading on PancakeSwap at approximately $0.01 per token.","source":"CoinAlpha / Bitget Academy","source_url":"https://www.bitget.com/academy/squid-game-crypto-sc"},{"date":"2021-10-26","event":"Token gains accelerating media attention; price begins multi-thousand-percent climb. CBS News records the launch date as October 26.","source":"CBS News","source_url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/squid-game-cryptocurrency-rug-pull-scam/"},{"date":"2021-10-29","event":"Invezz publishes analysis of the SQUID whitepaper highlighting the Marbles prerequisite for selling and the six promised but unbuilt games.","source":"Invezz","source_url":"https://invezz.com/news/2021/10/29/5-key-highlights-from-squid-game-tokens-whitepaper/"},{"date":"2021-10-30","event":"CoinTelegraph reports that multiple users are unable to sell their SQUID tokens despite the token posting gains of over 45,000%. CoinMarketCap appends an investor caution warning to the listing.","source":"CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/users-not-able-to-sell-squid-game-token-clocking-45-000-gains"},{"date":"2021-10-31","event":"Mainstream outlets including BBC, CNBC, Fortune, and Yahoo Finance run stories on the token's extraordinary price gains, with limited coverage of the documented sell restriction.","source":"Fortune","source_url":"https://fortune.com/2021/11/01/squid-game-crypto-collapse-scam/"},{"date":"2021-11-01","event":"At approximately 09:35 UTC (5:35 AM ET), SQUID reaches a peak price of $2,861. Within five minutes the price collapses to $0.0035 as developers drain liquidity from the PancakeSwap pool. The project website, Telegram channel, and Medium blog are taken offline simultaneously. Twitter restricts the project's official account.","source":"CoinTelegraph / Benzinga / CoinDesk","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/game-over-squid-game-inspired-crypto-scam-collapses-as-price-crashes-from-2-8k-to-zero"},{"date":"2021-11-01","event":"On-chain analysis later shows 55 deposits made into Tornado Cash on this single day by addresses linked to the SQUID operators, consolidating proceeds into a single address.","source":"TRM Labs","source_url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"},{"date":"2021-11-02","event":"Washington Post, NBC News, Fox Business, and Gizmodo publish post-collapse reporting. Estimated victim count exceeds 43,000 investors. Stolen amount reported at approximately $3.38 million.","source":"Gizmodo","source_url":"https://gizmodo.com/squid-game-cryptocurrency-scammers-make-off-with-2-1-m-1847972824"},{"date":"2021-11-03","event":"Binance publicly states it is investigating the SQUID token and considers it a scam. CoinDesk reports the investigation.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/03/binance-is-investigating-squid-game-token-considers-it-a-scam-report"},{"date":"2022-01-01","event":"TRM Labs publishes detailed on-chain investigation linking SQUID operators to two additional rug pulls and estimating total proceeds across the three schemes at approximately $19.3 million (35,025 BNB). No suspects publicly identified.","source":"TRM Labs","source_url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers"}]},"v":1}