Warning issued over K-pop crypto; Dog fight hits crypto market

Transcript

Korean pop culture hype and crypto horror stories are making our blood boil in the newsroom today.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast October 29, 2021, where things are about to get spooky. I’m Justin Solomon of Forkast.News covering all things blockchain filling in for Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau.

Korean pop culture has taken the world by storm of late, with boy band BTS and Netflix drama Squid Game seeing huge global success. However, alongside that hype comes warnings over a crypto frenzy and fake coins. We’ll take a look at those stories and a lot more coming up.

Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

First up, the popularity of K-pop and K-drama is seeping into the world of crypto.

Tokens inspired by the Netflix series Squid Games and K-pop mega group BTS have both gone on sale, but neither may prove a wise investment, with warnings being issued over each of them.

Forkast.News Danny Park has more.

Squid Game, the South Korean Netflix sensation captivated more than 142 million households in the first four weeks of its release.

Now there’s a Squid Game cryptocurrency whose white paper says it will be used to join a play-to-earn online game inspired by the tournament in the TV series.

The token, which is not affiliated with Netflix, saw its price soar over 1000% in the 24 hours to early Friday Asia time.

However, CoinMarketCap warns users to take caution in trading the Squid Game token as it has received multiple reports that users are not able to sell it in Pancakeswap, the token’s only market right now.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Singapore’s Bitget Exchange listed Army Coin, named after the fandom of K-pop boyband BTS.

According to the token’s official website, the project is made out of dedication towards BTS as fans, in that 50% of Army Coin will be donated to BTS wallet.

Hybe, the K-pop group’s music label responded by warning fans and investors to be cautious, saying the token has no affiliation with BTS or the company, and that the tokens aim to fund BTS with its profit is fake.

It went on to say it will take legal action against any infringement of publicity, although the token’s price surged from six cents to more than seven dollars at one point.

Real BTS fans on Twitter seem dubious, with one exclaiming “they are using army for clout. Do not engage, this is a scam”.

For Forkast.News, I’m Danny Park.

Meanwhile, the dogs are going to town on the crypto markets.

Yep, that’s right. A dogfight has been the name of the game over the past 24 hours, with Dogecoin and its pup Shiba Inu battling it out for a position as the top dog in the Crypto Top 10.

Forkast.News Lachlan Keller reports.

The once derided Shiba Inu token has been on a price tear over the past week, gaining more than 200% to hit a new all-time high on Thursday.

That saw it leap over Doge to take seventh position in the leaderboard by market cap. However, the high was quite brief and a price tumble saw it slide back to 10th position by Friday Morning Asia time.

But as Shib ceded, DOGE responded by jumping 44% in 24 hours, hitting a two month high of almost US$0.34. And while it’s also fallen since, it’s now sitting just above Shib at 9th place in that top 10.

All that excitement has trickled down to the huge litter of Shib and Doge imitators. Floki Inu, a coin named after Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s own Shiba Inu, gained over 250% in 24 hours, and hit an all-time high, though the price has since flattened out.

According to both Etherscan and BSCScan, more than 190,000 wallets hold Floki Inu between them.

And while it’s one of the largest, CoinMarketCap currently lists dozens of tokens with Inu in the name.

For Forkast.News, I’m Lachlan Keller.

And finally, today – not quite set to celebrate a spooktacular Halloween in Crypto Land?

Fear not, Forkast.News Monika Ghosh has rounded up some of the most blood curdling horror stories in crypto to get you in a ghoulish mood.

Trick or treat? These are some of the most terrifying crypto stories so far this year.

First up, when a deadly hailstorm rains down from the powers that be. That’s what happened in China on September 24, when crypto trading and mining were banned.

The move sent shockwaves through the industry, with the price of Bitcoin slumping 6%. However, there were omens ahead of the move, with the clampdown on mining kickstarting a mass exodus of miners, earlier in the year.

But has that curse followed those crypto miners?

A significant number thought they’d found a safe haven in Kazakhstan, only for the lights to start flickering out.

Kazakhstan emerged as the second largest bitcoin mining hub in the world after the U.S, following that exodus. But those miners relief has been short lived, with the country’s energy minister proposing a draft bill to limit electricity supplies to new miners after several regions suffered from power shortages.

And finally, watch out for blood thirsty crypto vampires. You might not recognize them on the street, but you’ll certainly know when the hackers have bled you dry.

August saw the biggest hack in DeFi history, though that lost spirit found its way back to the light, returning the US$600 million worth of assets stolen from Poly Network within two weeks.

But will the same happen in the case of this week’s attack on Cream Finance?

In its third attack of the year, US$130 million worth of tokens vanished in a puff of smoke.

Best watch out for this crypto bumps in the night.

For Forkast.News. I’m Monika Ghosh.

And hat’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia. Hit like, hit subscribe. Appreciate it always, help us reach our goal to reach more of you.

Visit Forkast.News. Happy Halloween! I’m Justin Solomon. Until next time.