Cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated an investigation into the recent trading activity surrounding the RAVE token, following allegations by on-chain analyst ZachXBT that insiders orchestrated a large short squeeze, resulting in the token's rapid price surge. Bitget's CEO, Gracy Chen, confirmed that the exchange has started investigating the matter, while Binance's CEO, Richard Teng, stated that the platform is also looking into the claims and will examine signs of market misconduct. Additionally, ZachXBT has offered a $10,000 bounty to whistleblowers who come forward with evidence about the parties involved. The RAVE token, associated with the Web3 project RaveDAO, experienced a 4,500% price increase over the course of a week, resulting in over $44 million in liquidations.
However, the token's price surge has raised concerns due to the concentration of tokens within a small set of wallets, with nearly 90% of the supply held in just three Gnosis Safe wallets. Furthermore, millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges shortly before the price surge, sparking allegations of a 'bait and liquidate' scheme. RaveDAO has denied any involvement in the price manipulation, stating that the team is not responsible for the recent price action and plans to liquidate portions of unlocked tokens when appropriate.