Following allegations of a large-scale short squeeze orchestrated by insiders, major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Bitget have initiated investigations into the trading activity surrounding RaveDAO's RAVE token. The claims, made by on-chain analyst ZachXBT, suggest that a significant price manipulation may have occurred, resulting in a 4,500% increase in the token's value over a week. The token's price surge led to the liquidation of over $44 million in bearish positions in a single day.
Notably, nearly 90% of RAVE's supply was concentrated in just three Gnosis Safe wallets at the time, and millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges shortly before the price began to rise. RaveDAO, a Web3 project focused on electronic music events, has denied any involvement in the price manipulation, stating that it is 'not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action.' The project has announced plans to explore new token lock models that tie team incentives to ecosystem growth, but has not committed to a specific mechanism or timeline. Meanwhile, ZachXBT has offered a $10,000 bounty to whistleblowers who can provide evidence about the parties involved in the alleged manipulation.