Speculators who bet on the Squid Game cryptocurrency last week met a fate nearly as grim as that of players in the hit Netflix series from Sunday night through Monday morning.
The cryptocurrency, which saw one-week gains of nearly 310,000% as of Sunday night, completely collapsed starting at 5:00 a.m. ET, heightening suspicions the entire venture was a scam. The token’s website and social accounts have disappeared, along with the white paper describing SQUID. And the price has fallen from $38.27 near midnight ET on Sunday to $0.0030 as of 9:30 a.m. ET, according to CoinMarketCap.
Possibly worse, for some investors, immediately before the collapse, the SQUID token spiked to $2,856 between 2 a.m. ET and 5:30 a.m. ET. Five minutes later, the value was less than a penny.
The collapse came after Twitter flagged the crypto’s account as suspicious, restricting access to it. Many traders were skeptical of SQUID before this, though, as the white paper was laden with typographical errors, and the background claims of the founders were shown to be deceptive.
CoinMarketCap had warned potential traders since the beginning about the crypto, urging people to do due diligence and exercise caution while trading. Many traders said they were unable to sell their SQUID holdings, which was another red flag.
Even with the collapse, the token still has a (self-reported) market cap of over $2 million.
More finance coverage from Fortune:
- “Such a different asset class”: How crypto can fit into your overall portfolio
- Consulting giant KPMG ups 401(k) plans and other perks to retain workers
- Hyperinflation: Why Jack Dorsey is worried
- The Great Resignation is no joke
- Welcome to the new excruciating world of waiting for everything
Subscribe to Fortune Daily to get essential business stories delivered straight to your inbox each morning.
