Beware of thunder! This player in the second season of "Squid Game" is actually a famous currency speculation Youtuber? What phenomenon does the director want to convey?

The globally popular Netflix series "Squid Game" has recently released its second season, and the second season is closely related to cryptocurrency from the participants' background stories to the plot development. This also confirms the title of South Korea as a crypto trading powerhouse. The director also revealed the story setting for this season in an interview, which actually reflects the phenomenon that speculation has become a common practice, rather than the old concept of earning a general income through ordinary labor. Seeing the crypto market being dominated by price and speculation narratives also seems to validate this phenomenon.

Taiwanese KOLs, beware! Failed crypto Youtubers join Squid Game

Actor Yim Si-wan, who won the Blue Dragon Award (one of the three major awards in the South Korean film industry), plays the role of Player 333, Lee Myung-guk, in this season. He previously operated a crypto trading channel called MG Coin, but was embroiled in a fraud case, leading to his downfall and participation in Squid Game. During the competition, he encountered many of his former followers, who had lost everything due to believing his rhetoric, including BIGBANG member Choi Seung-hyun (T.O.P), who played the role of the rapper Sangwoo, as one of the victims.

The author believes that many Taiwanese crypto KOLs should watch this season, as they may all be future participants.

Player 222, Kim Sun-hee, is played by former Iz*One member Kwon Eun-bi, nicknamed the "Busan Machine Gun". Unlike other participants who lost their investments due to subscribing to the MG Coin channel, Kim Sun-hee's identity is that of Lee Myung-guk's ex-girlfriend. Similarly, she was misled by her ex-boyfriend's rhetoric and suffered investment losses. In the drama, there is a memorable scene where she confronts him, saying "It was you who told me to buy those cryptocurrencies".

Lottery or bread? Director implies speculation is becoming mainstream

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk stated in an interview with Taiwanese media that the first episode titled "Lottery vs. Bread" is meant to reflect the increasing number of people who prefer to speculate on stocks and Bits rather than earn a normal salary through regular labor. The suit-wearing character played by Gong Yoo is constantly holding bread and a lottery ticket, asking the homeless to choose between the two, as the director wants to convey that while basic needs are considered the most fundamental human requirement, many people still choose the extremely low-probability lottery.

The drama also features several memorable scenes, such as Lee Myung-guk's reaction when the organizers confiscated his phone: "At least give me back my phone, I need to check the Bit price trend." After the first season aired, a Squid Bit was even created, but its price plummeted like a sickle, wiping out all the investors. Similarly, at the beginning of this year, a GameFi Squid Bit also appeared on TON, with a similarly frightening trend. This may also reflect the phenomenon that, despite the slim chances, more and more people are still trying to make a comeback through speculation.

(Park Min-young's ex-lover and Seo Ye-ji's husband were both involved in a Bithumb listing bribery case, sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, and detained on the spot)