Gerry Palmers Tech 11.22.2021 20:Nov PM EST

Crypto Scam: Meme Coin Tsuzuki Inu Steals $1.1 Million From Investors

Another SQUID-like rug pull has victimized crypto investors.

Crypto scams have been on the rise since the infamous token named after the hit Netflix series "Squid Game" defrauded investors millions of dollars.

However, even with increased regulation, stricter security measures and better vigilance as a result of this trend, another crypto scam has emerged--again pocketing millions of dollars in investor money. Such scams could strengthen doubts on investing in meme coins.

Developers of the Tsuzuki Inu cryptocurrency protocol have reportedly rug pulled, or maliciously abandoned the project and ran off with the investor funds. According to the Etherscan transaction history, these scammers converted ERC-20 tokens into 265 wrapped Ethereum, then to USDC valued at $1,157,125, an AMB Crypto report said.

Tsuzuki Inu Token Crashes 97% After Rug Pull

After the rug pull, Tsuzuki Inu plummeted 97 percent and was trading at $0.0000000000018 on Monday, Coinmarketcap noted. However, the token rose slightly later Monday to $0.00000000000377.

Tsuzuki Inu had been in existence since March 2021, flaunting itself as a meme and gaming token. The project planned to offer Play to Earn (P2E) features, together with a DEX wallet, to strengthen its credibility and legitimacy in the market. It had one quintillion in circulation with locked liquidity.

Despite this, the developers were able to evade this measure and persuaded investors to exchange their TZKI tokens with TZKI version 2 tokens using a swap contract account.

Since the rug pull, the token's official Twitter handle has been disabled with its Twitter channel unavailable. Disgruntled investors took to Twitter to express their disgust over the malicious activity that siphoned off their hard earned money. They vented all their anger against crypto influencer and TZKI endorser, @ShadowedEmbrac3, with death threats, AMB Crypto further reported. The influencer had since emphasized that he was not a member of the Tsuzuki Inu project team and was actually a victim of the rug pull.

Even legitimate crypto exchanges, such as BitMart, received investor wrath for listing such a questionable token and demanded that it refund their investments. BitMart ceased deposits and withdrawals for TZKI, which was requested by the token's project team.

Rising Rug Pull Incidents Raises Doubts on Meme Cryptocurrencies

While meme coins like Shiba Inu and P2E tokens such as Axie Infinity continue their meteoric rise, such scams seem to be a growing trend as well. This rug pull is similar to recent "Squid Game" incident in early November, wherein its developers had abandoned the project and pocketed millions in investor money. Its SQUID token crashed to almost nothing after its value skyrocketed by 23,000,000 percent to $2,856.65.

Developers of the Squid Game project reportedly ran off with $3.38 million.

Rug pulls are now alarmingly common in the crypto space, with investors losing $113 million between January and July this year, CBS News quoted a CipherTrace report. With that said, interested investors should always exercise caution.