Binance and Bitget have both announced that they are going to investigate trading activity involving the RaveDAO token after concerns were raised about possible market manipulations.
In response to ZachXBT’s post, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen also confirmed the same direction, stating, “thanks for highlighting! We’ve started investigating into $RAVE.”
Shortly after, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng also responded directly to the issue, saying, “Thanks for flagging this with us @zachxbt. We’re looking into it. We will always do our part to investigate all market misconduct.”
How it all started
The issue became public when ZachXBT shared on X that “pump and dump activity for RAVE token originated on Bitget, Binance and Gate,” adding that insiders were controlling more than 90% of the supply.
He called on Binance co-founder He Yi and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen to carry out internal checks and remove those responsible from their platforms. He also placed a $10,000 bounty for whistleblowers who could provide proof of manipulation. Bitget later confirmed that an investigation into $RAVE had started.
ZachXBT shared early warning signals from on-chain data
ZachXBT explained that wallets linked to the RaveDAO project sent about 18.58 million RAVE tokens to Bitget before any price movement began. At that time, the token was trading under $0.50 and there was no public announcement about the transfer.
Roughly ten hours later, trading activity picked up sharply. At the same time, reports showed that about 74% of traders on Binance were holding short positions, meaning they were betting the price would fall.
Later, around 29.78 million tokens were pulled out from Bitget, which reduced the amount of tokens available for selling on the market. This shift in liquidity is said to have helped fuel a fast price surge, as short positions were squeezed out of the market.
The price moved from about $0.27 to over $14 within seven days, marking a rise of more than 5,500%. In a separate chart shared by ZachXBT, RAVE also showed a 10,383% increase over a 30-day period, highlighting the extreme volatility in trading activity.
ZachXBT said he had already contacted a RaveDAO co-founder before going public but received no response. In his words, “We cannot allow this blatant market manipulation by insiders controlling more than 90% RAVE support to further extract from retail investors.” He later pushed exchanges again to act quickly and investigate all linked accounts involved in the activity.
Insider control Allegations grow stronger
Blockchain analyst Anndy Lian also pointed to heavy token concentration. He stated that the top 10 wallets hold around 98.16% of total supply.
At the same time, the token structure also raised concerns. The fully diluted valuation was said to be around four times higher than the current market cap, a pattern often followed by large corrections in crypto markets. No public codebase or completed security audit has been released for the project, which added more questions around transparency.
RAVE is down 30% in 24 hours
Despite the concerns, RAVE continued to trade actively. At one point, its market capitalization reportedly surged to over $6.52 billion. The price also rose by about 44% on Saturday, reaching around $27.23 during early trading hours. However, it is now down by 30% to about $11.
ZachXBT maintained that coordinated actions from insiders may have driven the price movement through controlled supply and liquidity shifts.
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.