BREAKING — I was halfway through my morning coffee when a push notification lit up my phone: "Squid Game creator says VIP villains now mirror Elon Musk." The caffeine hit and the headline hit at the exact same time, so I did what any self-respecting crypto nerd who also loves dystopian TV does—I dove down the rabbit hole.
Here's What Actually Happened
Hwang Dong-hyuk, the man who turned playground games into a social commentary juggernaut, just wrapped press calls for Season 3. In one of those interviews—sadly the transcript hasn’t been posted in full anywhere yet; I chased it for hours—he told reporters that the masked, Champagne-sipping VIPs will lean even harder into the "tech billionaire" archetype. One journo asked if he had anyone specific in mind. Hwang reportedly laughed and replied,
"Let’s just say people might see shades of Mr. Elon Musk."My Twitter feed went feral within minutes.
For context, the VIPs were already caricatures of predatory wealth. In Season 1, they sat in velvet seats watching debt-riddled contestants literally kill for cash—while betting on them the way we bet on meme coins. Season 2 teased upgraded backstories, but Season 3, according to Hwang, folds in real-world references: Mars colonization chatter, flamethrower memes, and a not-so-subtle nod to Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
Why a TV Show Is Relevant to Your Crypto Bags
I know what you’re thinking: "Cool pop-culture nugget, but how does this move the crypto markets?" In my experience, cultural narratives shape retail sentiment faster than any white paper. Remember when HBO’s Silicon Valley did an ICO spoof? Google Trends for "what is an ICO" spiked 35% that week. So, if one of Netflix’s biggest IPs—111 million households watched Season 1 in its first month, per Netflix IR—starts dragging a real-life crypto-loving billionaire through the mud, you’d better believe the TikTok crowd will have feelings about it.
Now here’s the interesting part: Musk himself remains crypto Twitter’s ultimate market-moving whale. One Bitcoin meme tweet from him on October 3, 2020, pushed BTC up 2.9% inside an hour. That’s on-chain causality I can chart via Santiment’s social volume tool. If Squid Game Season 3 pushes a negative Musk caricature to 100+ million eyeballs, could that erode some of his memetic power? I’m not claiming it will tank Bitcoin, but sentiment is a fragile beast.
I Dug Through the Numbers (Because I’m That Kind of Nerd)
Here’s a data snapshot I cobbled together over the past 48 hours:
- Netflix viewership projection: Internal slide leaked last year (source: The Verge) estimates 125 million households for a fresh Squid Game season within 28 days of release.
- Elon Musk Twitter reach: 161 million followers as of press time; average engagement rate 1.4% (SocialBlade).
- Correlated price jumps: Musk-related tweets mentioning "DOGE" coincided with 5 out of the last 7 intraday pumps >8% (Messari screener, Jan–Jun 2023).
- Public favorability: YouGov survey from May 2023 showed Musk’s net favorability dipping to 29% among Gen Z after the Twitter rebrand to X.
Put that together and you get a recipe for a narrative tussle: a TV mega-hit could chip away at Musk’s pop-culture armor right as his crypto influence already starts waning. If perception shifts, meme-coin dynamics could get weird.
So, Are We Dealing with Straight-Up Elon Parody?
I grabbed a friend who freelances in the Korean TV translation circuit. She hasn’t seen final scripts (NDA hell), but she heard whispers of a VIP character who:
- Arrives via a private rocket-style aircraft.
- Wears a custom mask shaped like a retriever—close enough to the Doge?
- Occasionally live-tweets the arena action to "loyal followers."
If that isn’t Musk-coded, I’ll eat my Ledger Nano.
What the Crypto OGs Are Saying
I slid into a couple Telegram channels—EthMagicians, CredibleCrypto Lounge—to gauge vibes. Reactions were split:
"Musk deserves the roast. Guy flips markets with emoji." — 0xAlex, early Compound dev
"We need Elon bullish, not bearish. Season 3 FUD could be an accidental market short." — @WhaleChart
Personally, I side with 0xAlex. A little pressure-testing of influencers feels healthy. We keep saying don’t trust, verify, right? Yet half the market still trades off Musk’s meme energy.
Tangential Rabbit Hole: Squid Token PTSD
Remember the 2021 Squid Game rug pull token? The one that shot from a few cents to $2,861 and collapsed to near-zero in 15 minutes. CoinMarketCap still shows the horrific wick. If Season 3 revives mainstream hype, I guarantee fresh scam tokens will sprout. I ran a quick DEXTools scan yesterday: already saw contract names like "SQUIDX", "GameOfSquids", and, for the LOLs, "MuskySquid" on BSC with liquidity < $10k. You've been warned.
Could Netflix Drop an NFT Tie-In?
I’m speculating here, but Netflix has flirted with digital collectibles before. They partnered with Decentraland last year for a Gray Man maze promo. If they mint limited Squid Game NFTs—think masked VIP avatars—on Polygon, we could see another Reddit Avatars-style adoption moment. The timing would be perfect: Polygon’s zkEVM just clocked 3,000 TPS in testnet per their blog, and Netflix loves low gas fees more than I love zero-slippage trades.
Potential Market Plays (Not Financial Advice, Chill)
I’m tracking three angles:
- DOGE sentiment: If Musk FUD erupts, DOGE could lag memecoin peers. I’m setting an alert on IntoTheBlock’s bid-ask imbalances.
- Streaming tokens: AUDIO and THETA historically pump on large entertainment headlines. Might catch a sympathy bid.
- Polygon NFTs: Any Netflix tie-in rumors could juice MATIC short-term; watch for on-chain spikes in
0x495f...– that’s Polygon’s shared storefront contract.
But again, DYOR. This article is coffee-fueled conjecture, not gospel.
What Does Musk Think?
Elon hasn’t tweeted about the Squid Game comments yet, which is unusual given his hair-trigger meme reflexes. If he does respond, expect lasers. In 2021 he called Jeff Bezos a "copycat" for Blue Origin; imagine what he’ll say about a fictional VIP blowing up contestants for fun.
Side note: Tesla’s next earnings call is in six weeks. If Squid Game drops around the same time, journalists might sneak in a cheeky question. I kind of hope they do. Wall Street loves a culture-war subplot almost as much as CNBC loves a ticker flash.
Why This Matters for Your Portfolio
Attention is capital. We’ve seen GameStop, AMC, Pepe, Bonk—memetics drive flows. If public opinion of Musk tilts negative among the same demographics that YOLO into DOGE, liquidity could migrate to new mascots. Maybe Shiba Inu reclaims narrative control. Maybe Floki. Maybe something we haven’t heard of yet, lurking on Solana waiting for an influencer spark.
To quote my buddy who runs a market-making bot: "Narratives are order flow." Squid Game Season 3 is shaping up to be a narrative hydrogen bomb.
I’ll Leave You with a Personal Take
I genuinely adore Musk’s audacity—sending Teslas to space is baller—but I also think concentrating market influence in one human is reckless. If Hwang’s new episodes nudge viewers to question billionaire hero worship, that can only be healthy for cryptoland’s maturation. We need fewer cult leaders and more open-source collaboration, IMHO.
At the same time, I’m bracing for the next scam coin cycle and drafting a mental checklist: verify contracts, read renounced-ownership flags, and remember that the worst rug pulls wear the friendliest masks—just like the VIPs.
TL;DR? Musk might get roasted on the world’s biggest streaming platform, and the ripple effects could touch everything from DOGE charts to Netflix NFT drops. I’ll be glued to my hardware wallet—and my popcorn bowl—when the first episode streams.
