Major cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Bitget, have initiated investigations into the recent trading activities surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token. This comes after on-chain analyst ZachXBT raised allegations of insider involvement in a large short squeeze that led to the token's rapid price increase.
Bitget's CEO, Gracy Chen, confirmed the exchange's investigation, while Binance's CEO, Richard Teng, stated that the platform would examine signs of market misconduct. Another exchange, Gate, was also implicated in ZachXBT's investigation. A $10,000 bounty has been offered by ZachXBT for whistleblowers to share evidence about the parties involved.
The RAVE token experienced a significant rally, resulting in over $44 million in bearish positions being liquidated in a single day, following a 4,500% increase over the course of a week. Notably, nearly 90% of the token's supply was concentrated in three Gnosis Safe wallets at the time, and millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges shortly before the price surge. RaveDAO, a Web3 project focused on electronic music events, has reported $3 million in revenue in 2025 and hosts blockchain-based ticketing and community governance. However, the token's market behavior has been at odds with its footprint, surging from $0.30 to over $6 in a single day before receding.
The token's market value briefly exceeded $6 billion before dropping, and it is now down over 50% from its peak and 30% in the last 24 hours. Allegations of a 'bait and liquidate' pattern have also emerged, suggesting that visible transfers may be used to create selling pressure, drawing traders into short positions. RaveDAO has addressed the situation, stating that the team is not responsible for the recent price action and plans to liquidate portions of unlocked tokens 'when appropriate.' The project is exploring models to tie team incentives to ecosystem growth but has not committed to a specific mechanism or timeline.