RAVE Token Plunges 90% in 24 Hours Amid Exchange Investigations

A staggering $5.7 billion in market capitalization vanished within 48 hours, sparked by a 90% crash of RaveDAO's RAVE token following investigations by Binance and Bitget into unusual trading patterns that briefly propelled the token to a $6 billion market cap. The probe, confirmed by Bitget CEO Gracy Chen and Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, was prompted by on-chain analyst ZachXBT's allegations, which also implicated Gate.io. Despite RaveDAO's denial of any wrongdoing in a six-part X thread, claiming the team was not responsible for the recent price surge, the token's collapse accelerated. The project's statement failed to address specific allegations, including the concentration of 90% of the RAVE supply in three Gnosis Safe wallets and large-scale token transfers to exchanges before the rally. The original price surge saw RAVE jump from $0.25 to $27.33 in nine days, resulting in $44 million in liquidations, primarily from short sellers. Investigators identified a 'bait and liquidate' pattern, where visible token transfers to exchanges misled traders into short positions before prices skyrocketed, forcing them to cover at unfavorable levels. RaveDAO, a Web3 entertainment platform, reported $3 million in 2025 revenue and has partnerships with major players like Binance, OKX, and Polygon. While the team expressed plans to liquidate unlocked tokens to fund operations and explore lockup mechanisms, no specific commitments were made.