RAVE Token Plunges 90% in 24 Hours Amid Exchange Investigations

A drastic 90% decline in the RAVE token's value occurred within a 24-hour period, triggered by investigations into trading activity by crypto exchanges Binance and Bitget, which had propelled the token to a $6 billion market cap the previous week. The probe was confirmed by Bitget CEO Gracy Chen and Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, with Gate.io also implicated in the allegations made by onchain investigator ZachXBT, who is offering a $25,000 bounty for whistleblowers. Despite RaveDAO's denial of any involvement in the recent price action, the token's collapse accelerated, with the project's statement failing to address specific onchain allegations, including the concentration of 90% of the 1 billion RAVE supply across three Gnosis Safe multi-signature wallets attributed to the team. The original rally had seen RAVE surge from $0.25 to $27.33 in nine days, resulting in $44 million in liquidations on Friday, primarily from short sellers. Investigators identified a 'bait and liquidate' pattern, where visible token transfers to exchanges suggested incoming sell pressure, drawing traders into short positions before those tokens were withdrawn and prices rose, forcing shorts to cover at progressively worse levels. RaveDAO, a Web3 entertainment platform, reported $3 million in 2025 revenue and has partnerships with Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Polygon. The project plans to liquidate portions of unlocked tokens to fund operations and marketing, exploring models that tie team incentives to ecosystem growth, but did not commit to a specific lockup mechanism or timeline.