John McAfee, the controversial software engineer and crypto advocate, could still be alive, according to his ex-girlfriend.
“I don’t know if I should say, but two weeks ago, after his death, I got a call from Texas: ‘It’s me, John. I paid off people to pretend that I am dead, but I am not dead,'” Herrera claims in the Netflix documentary “Running With the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee,” out Wednesday.
A new revelation is now being made as McAfee’s ex-girlfriend, Samantha Herrera, said with all certainty that the Anti-Virus pioneer faked his own death, is still alive, and currently lives in Texas.
Back in June 2021, the world got perplexed when it was revealed that John McAfee, the controversial software engineer, and crypto advocate, was found dead in a Spanish prison.
While it is unclear how real the revelations are considering the fact that Herrera had a motive as McAfee broke her heart when she refused to elope with him. According to Herrera’s reports, McAfee told her that there are just about three people in this world that know that he is alive.
McAfee’s death did not really bring up a lot of uproar at the time because the timing of the alleged suicide was just about a few weeks after the Spanish legal authorities approved the warrant to extradite him to the United States, where he was supposed to face tax evasion charges.
While the Netflix director Charlie Russell was also shocked to hear the news again. This revelation may serve as the key basis for a more targeted manhunt for McAfee.
John McAfee is an important tech figure in both the Web2.0 and Web3.0 worlds. Besides creating the popular McAfee computer Antivirus as well as the Ghostcoin crypto project. He lived a somewhat controversial life and is more often than not always up on the wall with respect to the market manipulations. Up until the time he was declared dead, McAfee was one of the vocal advocates for Bitcoin and decentralized token innovations.
A cryptocurrency inspired by Netflix’s internationally hit TV show Squid Game scammed investors in what appears to be a $3.38-million “rug pull” scheme.
Dubbed SQUID, the cryptocurrency plunged to almost a fraction of a cent minutes after crossing over $2,850 at 09:35 UTC on Nov. 1. The deadly drop oed following a 75,000% bull run, showcasing a greater demand for SQUID among traders after its debut on Oct. 26.
At the core of the retail craze lay the popularity of Squid Game. The scammers promoted SQUID as a play-to-earn cryptocurrency inspired by the South Korean TV fictional show in which people put their lives at risk to play a series of children’s games for the opportunity to win 45.6 billion won (~$38.7 million).
The marketing ploy helped push SQUID prices from $0.01 on Oct. 26 to over $38 on Sunday. The cryptocurrency then jumped to $90 on Nov. 1, ushering in a massive pumping round that pushed its price further to over $2,850, only to crash all the way down to $0.002 minutes later.
SQUID price pump and dump. Source: CoinMarketCap
Red flags
In the days leading up to the massive crash, traders had complained that they could not sell their SQUID holdings in the only available market, a decentralized exchange called PancakeSwap. In their defense, SQUID founders said they had deployed an innovative “anti-dumping technology” that limits people from selling their tokens against lower demand.
A lot of my normie friends bought this $SQUID game token and couldn’t sell i (“anti-dump feature”)
Now look what happened pic.twitter.com/wq5egYBKFa
— Friend of Peach (@WaymanCap) November 1, 2021
“The more people join, the larger reward pool will be (sic),” the Squid Game white paper read, adding:
“Developers will take 10% of the entry fee with the remaining 90% given to the winner.”
Major news network CNBC also published the Squid Game cryptocurrency founders’ claims without omissions, insofar that it called SQUID the “very own brand” of the Netflix show.
The Squid Game cryptocurrency founders also said they were affiliated with the Netflix show as its official token partner. They also claimed that they had entered a strategic partnership with CoinGecko, a crypto data provider. However, in an interview with Cointelegraph, CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong refuted the claims, saying:
“[SQUID] did not meet our listing criteria, hence it will not be listed on CoinGecko. It’s most likely a scam.”
CoinMarketCap, a rival of CoinGecko, listed SQUID on its platform but warned visitors about the cryptocurrency’s dubious nature in a notice that read:
“There is growing evidence that this project has rugged. Please do your own due diligence and exercise extreme caution. This project, while clearly inspired by the Netflix show of the same name, is NOT affiliated with the official IP.”
Related: YouTube channels hacked and rebranded for livestreaming crypto scams
Meanwhile, analysts also noted that the Squid Game token founders had no profiles on LinkedIn, with Twitterati Crypto Tyrion ruling SQUID as a “100% rug pull.”
Closed Telegram group: ❌❌❌❌
Closed discord: ❌❌❌❌
Blocked Tweets comments: ❌❌❌❌
No founder Linkedin: ❌❌❌❌
CNBC article to pump: ❌❌❌❌
CONFIRMED SCAM@IncomeSharks @jaynemesis
— Crypto Tyrion (@Cryptotyrion) October 29, 2021
It now appears like a “game over” scenario for the SQUID bag holders.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
A new token inspired by popular Netflix show Squid Game has posted 45,000% growth in a few days after launch earlier this week, but multiple investors are reportedly unable to sell the token.
The cryptocurrency community has been accusing the Squid Game (SQUID) token of being a scam amid reports that some investors are not able to withdraw the token on major decentralized exchange Pancakeswap.
“We have received multiple reports that the users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap. Please exercise caution while trading,” major crypto tracking website CoinMarketCap (CMC) noted in a warning about the SQUID token on its website.
According to CMC, Pancakeswap is the only market available for trading SQUID at the time of writing. The token is trading at $5.71 and is among the top gainers on CMC with a daily trading volume of $7 million.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Amid SQUID’s mind-blowing growth coupled with reports on the inability to sell the token, some enthusiasts in the crypto community have alleged that the new coin is likely to be a scam scheme.
Twitter user Crypto Tyrion observed that Squid Game token founders, which are mentioned on its website, are not on major professional network LinkedIn. He also stressed that Squid Game token was blocking tweet comments while not having Telegram and Discord channels. “100% rug pull,” Crypto Tyrion said.
Closed Telegram group: ❌❌❌❌
Closed discord: ❌❌❌❌
Blocked Tweets comments: ❌❌❌❌
No founder Linkedin: ❌❌❌❌
CNBC article to pump: ❌❌❌❌
CONFIRMED SCAM@IncomeSharks @jaynemesis
— Crypto Tyrion (@Cryptotyrion) October 29, 2021
Some observers also pointed out apparent issues in the Squid Game token’s white paper, including poor grammar, spelling errors and claims that are “impossible to verify.” According to popular scam check source Scamadviser.com, the Squid Game token’s website is suspicious with a trust score of 45 out of 100.
Related:YouTube channels hacked and rebranded for live-streaming crypto scams
The idea of the Squid Game token is inspired by Netflix’s eponymous show where players risk their lives to play deadly games in hope of a big payout. The token is said to allow players to participate in six online games, with the goal of winning prize money.
On Friday, CMC issued a post noting that SQUID’s rally may mean that playing the Squid Game described in the project’s white paper may be unaffordable for most participants due to SQUID holdings requirements. As such, the sixth and final game, would require players to hold 15,000 SQUID, which is over $80,000 at the time of writing.
Publications like CNBC reported that the Squid Game white paper mentioned “anti-dumping technology” that prevents people from selling their coins.
“Liquidity of SQUID will be locked for three years on DxSale which prevents any unseen and immediate changes to SQUID liquidity pool. Unlock date is Oct 20th, 2024,” the white paper reads.
Cointelegraph reached out through contact information listed on the Squid Game website with additional queries but didn’t hear back immediately.
One of the biggest mysteries in the cryptocurrency sector is getting fresh scrutiny in a Netflix documentary.
The online video streaming giant says in a tweet that it will air an investigative documentary titled “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King”.
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The documentary focuses on Gerald Cotten, the founder and CEO of QuadrigaCX, Canada’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange until two years ago.
Cotten, a Canadian, died in December of 2018 while on a honeymoon in India, but his death went unannounced until January 2019.
The QuadrigaCX CEO was allegedly the only one with the private keys required to access the crypto assets in the exchange’s custody, believed to be worth $145 million (C $190 million) at the time of his death.
Netflix says the documentary will air starting next year.
“TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KING
Follow a group of investors turned sleuths as they try to unlock the suspicious death of cryptocurrency multimillionaire Gerry Cotten and the missing $250 million they believe he stole from them. Premieres in 2022″
Cotten’s sudden death in a foreign land and the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of crypto assets led to conspiracy theories that included suspicions that Cotten might have faked his death.
A report by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in May quoted Cotten’s widow denying the theory, saying through her lawyer that “she was with Mr. Cotten at the time of his death and he is most certainly dead.”
QuadrigaCX entered bankruptcy proceedings soon after Cotten’s death, and by May, the amount recovered to pay the roughly 76,000 creditors totaled $36,357,894 (C $46 million).
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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Don White – Art Dreamer/Vladimir Sazonov
American over-the-top content platform and production company Netflix Inc is set to premiere a documentary revealing the fall of a once-popular Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCx and the dead of its founder, Chief Executive Officer Gerald Cotten. He left the trading platform in chaos.
The death of Cotten in 2019 was out of expected. The lost of private keys and the funds lost from over 17,000 customers as the claims, resulting in as much as $250 million were locked into the platform when the news of Cotten’s death was first blown open. As Cotten had the only access to the database that could help unlock users’ hot wallets, leading to a great loss.
The Netflix original documentary will be reviewing some of the exchange’s customers who have held onto and propagated the school of thought that Cotten faked his own death to defraud the thousands of customers who trusted him and his trading platform. The proposed Netflix documentary set to premiere in 2022 is dubbed: “TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KING.”
The production “follows a group of investors turned sleuths as they try to unlock the suspicious death of cryptocurrency multimillionaire Gerry Cotten and the missing $250 million they believe he stole from them,” Netflix reveals in its Twitter announcement where the firm also announced a list of other movies to expect soon.
The Gerald Cotten story drew in investigation from Ernst & Young (EY), one of the big four auditing firms appointed to help the trading platform’s aggrieved customers. The auditor eventually proposed three major options to compensate the claimants who held assets on the exchange. As of November 2020, a total of $29.8 million was designated as payable to the exchange’s customers.
With Netflix’s reputations in well-researched documentaries bordering on people’s lives, such as the case of the Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, featured as Narcos, chances are the movie company will reveal new details that have not been made public about Gerald Cotten’s story before.
Market analysts are arguing that Tesla’s exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) may be the reason for its sharp decorrelation from Big Tech in recent weeks. As of Wednesday, July 14, the 20-day correlation between the company’s price and the Nasdaq 100 index has dropped from 0.83 on June 17 down to 0.14.
Whereas Tesla has shed almost 4% this month, the Nasdaq 100 is up by over 2%. Weakened correlation between Tesla shares and the NYSE FANG+ index is also observable, as BNN Bloomberg reported. Amy Wu Silverman, a derivatives strategist at RBC Capital Markets, told reporters:
“Tesla is highly correlated to megacap tech […] this relationship has really decoupled in the near term. When I ask around, the feedback I get is that this is related to their Bitcoin exposure and how it will have to be accounted for when they report earnings.”
The EV maker’s earnings report is due July 26. Tesla’s eventful and controversial relationship with Bitcoin dominated headlines — and arguably catalyzed a crypto market bull run — in February of this year, when the company disclosed a strategic acquisition of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, worth 7.7% of its gross cash position at the time. It soon announced it would begin accepting BTC payments for its vehicles, indicating plans to hold, rather than convert, the Bitcoin.
The company sold a portion of its Bitcoin in Q1 2021, generating net proceeds of $272 million, although Musk was keen to stress he had not himself sold any of his own BTC holdings. By May, the close link between Tesla and the veteran cryptocurrency began to unravel, with Musk announcing Tesla would be pulling back from BTC payments acceptance due to environmental concerns about energy-intensive Bitcoin mining.
Related: Elon Musk and Bitcoin: A toxic relationship
Time will tell whether Tesla’s near-term weakened correlation with Big Tech stocks will become an established dynamic. In the crypto space, many have been more focused on the oversized impact Musk himself has had on the crypto market as a whole, most strikingly when it comes to Bitcoin and the meme cryptocurrency, Dogecoin (DOGE).
On Tuesday, 16 March, Fiat’s parent companyStellantisoutlined a new programthat pays youwith a cryptocurrency called KiriCoinif you drivea new 500,the brand’s EV minicar.
Taking a Crypto Path
Owners of the new Fiat 500ewill be able to earn rewards for economical driving thanks to an app that scores their driving style out of 100.Stellantis allied withKiri Technologies, a U.K.-based company, to initiate this reward program and improve sustainability.
Apart from that, the high-scoring drivers will get exclusive extra rewards which include vouchers fromApple, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Zalando.
Gabriele Catacchio, Stellantis e-Mobility program manager, said they want to support their environmentally friendly behaviors. Drivers of the New 500, connected and equipped with the new infotainment system, will get exclusive rewards in KiriCoins which they can collect in a ‘virtual’ wallet shown in the Fiat app.
Driving data, such as distance and speed, is uploaded to the Kiri cloud and automatically converted into KiriCoins, using Kiri’s algorithm. The outcome is downloaded to the user’s smartphone, who, on the other hand, use KiriCoins to purchase products and services in the Kiri marketplace.
KiriCoin for Every Kilometer
Founded in 2020, KiriCoin is a digital currency used in 13 European countries.All theFiat 500eownersdrivers of theNew 500 EV will get one KiriCoin for approximately every kilometer driven. Still, drivers with the highest eco: Score arrived via the car’s Uconnect infotainment system on efficiency and energy usage will get extra rewards according to their driving style.
Stellantis– the car giant that owns Fiat and its sister brands – says the venture will be available in the Fiat app. Fiat says 10,000 kilometers ( 6,214 miles) driven will earn a driver the equivalent of about €150 a year, or about $179, to be spent on vouchers at a minimum.
Rewarding Individuals who Respect the Environment
To qualify for the program, you first need a New 500. Currently, this EV is not available in North Americabut has been updated and re-introduced as a pure-electric model in Europe.You also need to live in an EU country where Fiat and KiriCoin offer this program.
Cristiano Fiorio, head of marketing communications at Stellantis Europe, said that Talent Garden is a melting pot of new ideas, the realm of high-tech and digital professionals. He added that this is where the e-Mobility journey through innovation began.
They discovered Kiri Technologies, which caught their attention with a straightforward, innovative idea: to reward the behaviors of people who respect the environment. He noted that the concept and features of the New 500, their flagship of technological innovation and electric mobility, came naturally to them.
Netflix may just be the next Fortune 100 company to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Amazon will have to accept it, says billionaire Tim Draper.
In an appearance on the Unstoppable Podcast on Feb. 28, the serial investor and hodler forecast that out of all possible candidates, Netflix is his pick for putting BTC on its balance sheet.
Draper: Netflix “might be next big one to fall”
“You know who it might be? Netflix,” he said.
“I think Reed Hastings is a very innovative guy and has a lot of creative thinking and I think he still controls the reins at Netflix and so I think that might be the next big one to fall.”
The prediction comes as telltale signs of institutional buy-ins continue to surface at current prices, with $48,000 seeing multiple large transactions at Coinbase Pro over the past week. Classic buyers MicroStrategy and Square both added to their positions.
Coinbase Pro outflows chart. Source: Ki Young Ju/ Twitter
Ever the optimist, Draper also considered that Amazon would add a direct Bitcoin payment option in future.
“Amazon will probably start accepting Bitcoin pretty soon,” he said, noting that consumers have been able to buy products indirectly using cryptocurrency for many years.
Amazon added Ethereum availability to its Managed Blockchain this week.
BTC price beats weekly highs
Bitcoin itself meanwhile saw a change in fortunes on Wednesday, exiting the $40,000 corridor to hit highs of $51,800 — the most since Feb. 25.
Taking traders by surprise, higher levels held at the time of writing, with BTC/USD circling $51,500.
“That went well,” popular trader Scott Melker summarized about overnight activity.
“Price broke out of both patterns, the local bull flag and descending channel. It is also currently trading above the 50% retracement level of the entire move, so holding above ~$50,600 would be very bullish. Let’s keep this momentum.”
Earlier, Cointelegraph had highlighted stagnation in the U.S. dollar as a catalyst for short-term gains.
Since Jan. 22 GameStop has been attracting a lot of attention from the mainstream news as the stock (GME) for the popular video game retailer rallied 860% from $17.40 on Jan. 4 to a high of $159.18 on Jan. 25.
On Jan. 25 GME pulled back 51.70% from its high to close the day at $76.79 but what lies behind the massive upsurge warrants closer inspection.
While solid fundamentals often lead to price breakouts in both stocks and cryptocurrencies, the recent interest in GameStop appears to have more to do with the ‘Reddit army’ phenomenon which has seen internet groups go head to head with some of the largest firms on Wall Street.
GameStop (GME) 1-day chart. Source:TradingView
The most well-known instance of this trend in the cryptocurrency sector occurred when a group of dedicated Chainlink (LINK) investors affectionately referred to by many as ‘LINK Marines’ joined forces to spread positive news about the altcoin and also pledged to keep buying it when larger investors devised a plan to short LINK.
In early 2020 the LINK Marines responded to Zeus Capital’s attempt to short the altcoin. When the word got out that Zeus Capital had referred to Chainlink as ‘crypto’s wirecard’ and opened a short position, LINK marines went to work, refusing to sell and pushing the altcoin’s price to a new all-time high by triggering successive short squeezes.
Fallout from the short call also shifted to Nexo Finance as members of the LINK marines discovered a clue allegedly connecting Zeus Capital with Nexo.
Gemini exchange co-founder, Tyler Winklevoss, previously acknowledged the contribution that the LINK marines add to the cryptocurrency community with the following tweet:
“I really appreciate the passion of the $LINK Marines. Their fervor and dedication reminds me of the early Bitcoin and Ethereum communities. Unlike many other crypto armies, they are dedicated to a project that has real promise and technical merit.”
A similar situation occurred with GameStop on Jan.21 after Citron Research announced plans to open a short position as they believed GME price would fall back to $20. The reaction to this announcement was so swift that Citron Research was unable to finish its Twitter live stream due to an overwhelming amount of responses.
Social investing groups are having an outsized impact on stocks
This isn’t the first time a group of investors on a social platform have joined together to pump the price of an asset as a similar phenomenon occurred with Tesla and Netflix stock in 2020.
Analysts had been calling for a drop in the price of Tesla (TSLA) stock since early 2019 and a number of institutional investors opened large short positions only to see its value increase by more than 1000% since that time and help Elon Musk briefly become the richest person in the world. Short sellers who piled in on the advice of the trusted wall street analysts have been crushed by the non-stop move higher.
These moves higher have been powered in part by the Robinhood effect, a term coined to define irrational stock price movements caused by retail buyers on mobile investing apps like Robinhood. Millennial traders high on easy options trading made it possible to pump TSLA and NFLX, triggering a massive short squeeze again and again.
TSLA/USD 1-day chart. Source:TradingView
Netflix (NFLX) has also been plagued with calls of an impending price drop for years as analysis showed that the company was burning through cash, losing subscribers to competitors yet still raises prices. Some of the top investment brokerages rated the stock as a ‘sell’ and chat forums were rife with discussions of why Netflix stock should be shorted.
NFLX/USD 1-day chart. Source:TradingView
During the time that analysts were writing NFLX off, its price increased from $253 to an all-time high of $586 on Jan. 20.
Unconventional practices compete with conventional investing
From Tesla to GameStop, it’s clear that there has been a shift in how investors interact with financial markets and the factors that catalyze price discovery have also changed as retail traders have easier access to market information and analysis.
Threats against short-sellers are nothing new, but what is different in this situation is that it has become “internet vigilantes, and not corporate agents, who targeted the shorts,” as noted by Christopher Smith in a recent thread posted on TradingView.
Smith said:
“The GameStop and Tesla stories prove that retail traders, if they band together, have the power to be market makers and to take on institutions. It also proves that markets aren’t necessarily efficient or rational.”
The cryptocurrency sector appears to be on the precipice of becoming a mainstream investment and as mobile investing platforms gain more market share and the popularity of social investing grows, it’s possible that the same phenomenon seen with GameStop and Tesla will become commonplace with the low market cap, illiquid tokens that populate the crypto market.
Millennials are also becoming increasingly interested in investing and as more of them engage with mobile investment platforms, these social investing phenomena could become more prevalent.
A clear example that the two worlds are beginning to merge can be found on the Twitter feed of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, MicroStrategy CEO Micheal Saylor, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Each frequently references Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin in their tweets and a number of times this has resulted in a temporary price pump of the discussed asset.
As 2021 progresses, it will be interesting to see how mainstream financial markets adapt and change to the growing influence of decentralized groups of united retail investors.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
