Following allegations of insider-orchestrated market manipulation, major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated investigations into the trading activity surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token. The token's value skyrocketed by 4,500% in a week, resulting in over $44 million in liquidations.
On-chain analyst ZachXBT has claimed that insiders engineered a large short squeeze, leading to the token's rapid rise. In response, Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen and Binance's CEO Richard Teng have publicly stated that their respective exchanges are looking into the matter. ZachXBT has also offered a $10,000 bounty for whistleblowers to come forward with evidence. The investigation has highlighted the concentration of RAVE tokens within a small set of wallets, with nearly 90% of its supply held in just three Gnosis Safe wallets.
Additionally, millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges shortly before the price surge began. RaveDAO, a Web3 project focused on electronic music events, has denied any involvement in the price manipulation, stating that it is 'not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action.' The project has also announced plans to explore 'appropriate models' for locking team incentives to ecosystem growth, although no specific mechanism or timeline has been committed to.