Major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated investigations into the recent trading activity surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token. This comes after on-chain analyst ZachXBT alleged that insiders manipulated the market, leading to a significant short squeeze that drove the token's price up rapidly.
Binance CEO Richard Teng and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen have both confirmed that their respective platforms are looking into the matter. ZachXBT has also offered a $10,000 bounty to anyone who can provide evidence about the parties involved. The RAVE token saw a 4,500% increase in price over the course of a week, resulting in over $44 million in bearish positions being liquidated in a single day.
Notably, nearly 90% of the token's supply was held in just three Gnosis Safe wallets at the time, and 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. However, the token's market behavior has been inconsistent with its project footprint, with its price surging from $0.30 to over $6 in a single day before receding. At its peak, the token's market value briefly exceeded $6 billion, making it one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
The token has since dropped by over 50% from its peak and 30% in the last 24 hours. Some have described the price action as a 'bait and liquidate' pattern, where visible transfers suggest selling pressure, drawing traders into short positions, only to later withdraw the tokens and drive prices up, forcing short sellers to buy back at higher prices. 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 also exploring models that tie team incentives to ecosystem growth.