Following allegations of insider-orchestrated price manipulation, leading cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated investigations into the trading activity surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token. The probe was sparked by on-chain analyst ZachXBT, who claimed that insiders engineered a substantial short squeeze, driving the token's rapid ascent. Binance CEO Richard Teng and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen have both publicly confirmed their respective platforms' involvement in examining the claims. Additionally, ZachXBT has offered a $10,000 bounty for whistleblowers to come forward with evidence regarding the parties involved.
The RAVE token's remarkable 4,500% surge over a week led to the liquidation of over $44 million in bearish positions, with nearly 90% of its supply concentrated in just three Gnosis Safe wallets at the time. Furthermore, millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges shortly before the price surge began. RaveDAO, a Web3 project focused on electronic music events, has reported $3 million in revenue in 2025, yet its token's market behavior has raised suspicions. The token's value briefly exceeded $6 billion before receding, with some claiming a 'bait and liquidate' pattern may have been employed.
While RaveDAO has denied any involvement in the recent price action, the project has announced plans to explore 'price-triggered or performance-triggered locks' to tie team incentives to ecosystem growth.