The globe'south biggest crypto exchange, Binance, has launched an inquiry into the Squid Game token (SQUID) to trace funds associated with the ballsy 45,000% pump and dump a few days ago.

The Binance Smart Chain-based gaming token SQUID is suspected to be an exit scam or rug pull, according to the commutation. Despite this, some extremely optimistic users are still buying the token in hope of a resurrection, with the price surging sixfold in the past 24 hours.

Binance is exploring options to assist those who bought the token and lost out in the crash. It is reportedly blacklisting addresses affiliated with the developers and using blockchain analytics to identify bad actors. Information technology hopes to recover lost funds, although this seems a relatively remote possibility.

Binance adamant the developers had used a coin mixer called Tornado Cash to obfuscate their transactions. "Our security team is currently tracing those funds," a spokesperson told Barrons before adding:

"These types of scam projects have become all as well common in the DeFi infinite every bit speculative crypto investors seeking the next 'moon shot' are quick to invest in projects without doing the appropriate due diligence."

Binance intends to hand over its findings to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

On Fri, Cointelegraph reported that token holders were unable to sell afterward the price of SQUID pumped more 45,000%. Industry observers had raised cherry flags at the time, saying that it had all the signs of a scam, such every bit closed social media accounts, anonymous developers, and a suspect white paper. Mainstream media outlets reported on the Squid Game token, which ignited fifty-fifty more FOMO.

SQUID/USD chart on November. 4. Source: CoinMarketCap

A number of copies of the token and its social media channel emerged inside days, and the developers posted in the Telegram "Squid Game BSC" channel that they "practice non want to continue running the project equally we are depressed from the scammers and are overwhelmed with stress."

By Mon, Twitter had flagged its business relationship as suspicious and the token'due south price collapsed by 99%, wiping out gains from every bit loftier as $2,861 in a autumn to well-nigh zero.

Related: Game over! 'Squid Game'-inspired crypto scam collapses as price crashes from $2.8K to zero

The Binance-owned CoinMarketCap tracker now displays a warning on its page for SQUID:

"There is growing evidence that this project has rugged. Please practise your own due diligence and exercise extreme caution. This projection, while clearly inspired past the Netflix show of the same name, is NOT affiliated with the official IP."

Remarkably, people are still buying the tokens. At the fourth dimension of writing, SQUID was trading upward 600% over the past 24 hours at $0.038 according to CoinMarketCap.