Major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated investigations into the recent trading activity surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token, following allegations by on-chain analyst ZachXBT that insiders manipulated the market, resulting in a significant short squeeze. Bitget's CEO, Gracy Chen, confirmed the investigation, while Binance's CEO, Richard Teng, stated that the platform would examine signs of market misconduct. ZachXBT has offered a $10,000 bounty for whistleblowers to share evidence about the parties involved.
The RAVE token experienced a rapid 4,500% increase in value over a week, leading to the liquidation of over $44 million in bearish positions. However, the token's market behavior has raised concerns, with nearly 90% of its supply concentrated in three Gnosis Safe wallets and millions of tokens transferred to exchanges before the price surge. RaveDAO, a Web3 project focused on electronic music events, has reported $3 million in revenue in 2025, but its token's market value briefly exceeded $6 billion before dropping.
The project has denied any involvement in the recent price action, stating that it plans to liquidate portions of unlocked tokens when appropriate and is exploring models to tie team incentives to ecosystem growth.