Prominent on-chain investigator ZachXBT has publicly exposed a coordinated pump-and-dump scheme involving the RAVE token, prompting a formal investigation by cryptocurrency exchange Bitget. ZachXBT's detailed report alleges that insider wallets linked to the RaveDAO deployer orchestrated the manipulation, controlling over 90% of the token's supply.
The investigator's post named major exchanges Bitget, Binance, and Gate as platforms where the suspicious activity originated. He directly called on Binance co-founder He Yi and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen to launch internal probes and remove the responsible actors. ZachXBT also offered a personal bounty, initially reported as $10,000 and later noted as $25,000, for whistleblowers providing proof of the misconduct.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen responded swiftly, stating, "Thanks for highlighting! We've started investigating into $RAVE." She confirmed the investigation is underway and promised action if misconduct is confirmed. As of the reports, Binance and Gate had not issued public responses.
The mechanics of the alleged manipulation were deliberate. According to ZachXBT, wallets connected to RaveDAO transferred 18.58 million RAVE tokens to Bitget before the price pump began, with no prior announcement. Ten hours later, a rally commenced. With 74% of traders on Binance holding short positions, insiders then withdrew 29.78 million tokens from Bitget, effectively draining the exchange's selling pressure. This triggered a massive short squeeze that propelled RAVE's price from $0.27 to over $14 in just seven days—a gain exceeding 5,500%.
Intergovernmental Blockchain Advisor Anndy Lian had previously highlighted several red flags surrounding the RAVE token. The top 10 wallets hold 98.16% of the total supply, with only 24-25% of the one billion token supply in circulation. The project also lacks a public codebase and a completed security audit, despite having notable backers like World Liberty Financial, Warner Music Group, Tomorrowland, and YZi Labs, a Web3 incubator with former Binance staff.
ZachXBT emphasized the severity of the situation, writing, "We cannot allow this blatant market manipulation by insiders controlling more than 90% RAVE supply to further extract from retail investors." He had attempted to contact RaveDAO's co-founder privately before going public but received no response.
