Crypto exchange Binance has announced that it is working with developers to identify the bad actors involved with the recent Squid Game inspired cryptocurrency token, after the token creators siphoned off millions of dollars of investors money. The exchange also promised to share the information obtained from the investigation with the appropriate law enforcement agency.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Binance is looking at ways to identify those involved with the Squid Game cryptocurrency scam.
- Crypto investors lost about Rs 25.3 crore in the scam.
- Binance will blacklist the addresses linked with the scam, from its own network.
As a goodwill gesture, cryptocurrency exchange Binance will now investigate the recent scam around the Squid crypto token that downed investors’ money in an exit scam. The exchange has also announced ways in which it will prohibit accounts linked to the scam from its own network.
A cryptocurrency based on the popular Netflix series Squid Game recently gained interest among crypto investors, rallying to a peak value of $2,861 within a week of its launch. The currency soon dropped to about $0, as the creators of the cryptocurrency cashed out the tokens and left the project with no liquidity for any more trade. It is estimated that the creators managed to siphon off $3.38 million, or about Rs 25.3 crore, through the project.
Binance has now stepped forward to take action against the scam. The exchange, in a recent statement, announced that it will investigate the crash of the Squid token. It cleared that it considers it a scam and that Binance will now explore options “to help those harmed” in the crash.
For this, the company will prevent any withdrawals from Binance accounts which were found to be linked to the scam. In a note to CoinDesk, it explains that it will use blockchain analytics “to identify the bad actors,” and will blacklist the addresses linked to them. More importantly, Binance will share all the information gathered through the investigation to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
The Squid token was built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Though Binance has no obligations to it, as BSC is an open-source network that enables developers to build decentralized applications. What the applications are used for, is anybody’s guess
It is easy money for scammers. The hype around cryptocurrency, especially when mixed with the trending topic of the digital space, makes crypto investors anxious to get in. The get-rich-quick instinct kicks in for many, having seen the meteoric rise of several cryptocurrencies in the recent few years.
Of course, crypto investors are more than often advised by experts to be careful while putting in their money on such purposely hyped cryptocurrencies. Binance reasserted this, as its spokesperson mentioned how such scam projects have become too common in the Decentralized finance (DeFi) space and suggested a caution against such schemes for the investors.
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