Following allegations of insider manipulation, major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated investigations into the trading activities surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token. The token experienced a remarkable 4,500% surge in value over a week, resulting in over $44 million in liquidated positions, primarily bearish, in a single day.
On-chain analyst ZachXBT has claimed that insiders orchestrated a large short squeeze to drive the token's rapid rise, prompting Binance CEO Richard Teng and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen to publicly announce their respective exchanges' investigations into the matter. ZachXBT has also offered a $10,000 bounty for whistleblowers to come forward with evidence.
Notably, nearly 90% of RAVE's supply was concentrated in three Gnosis Safe wallets, and millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges before the price surge began. RaveDAO, a Web3 project focused on electronic music events, has denied any involvement in the price action, stating it plans to liquidate portions of unlocked tokens 'when appropriate' and is exploring incentive models tied to ecosystem growth.