On April 18, crypto sleuth ZachXBT published an exposé detailing a scheme around the RAVE token: within a few days, the coin jumped from $0.25 to $28, then crashed by 95% — down to $1.
$6.000 B in market cap was wiped out despite only $52.000 M in liquidations over 24 hours. ZachXBT called this ratio a clear sign of an artificially inflated valuation. Among other projects with similarly suspicious dynamics, he mentioned SIREN, MYX, COAI, M, PIPPIN, and RIVER.
According to the analyst, nine addresses from the initial distribution control about 95% of the total token supply. He believes these wallets are behind the manipulation — or that the project team definitely knows who controls them.
ZachXBT also pointed to addresses linked to the team, as well as activity on Bitget and Gate, which contradicts RaveDAO’s statements denying involvement.
While the investigation was ongoing, a multisig wallet from the initial distribution transferred around 23.000 M RAVE ($23M) to two Bitget deposit addresses. The token immediately dropped another 40% — from $1 to $0.6.
The team behind RAVE categorically rejected the allegations. The project also announced plans to sell part of its unlocked tokens to fund operations and hiring, and to explore “trigger locks” — mechanisms that lock tokens based on price or project metrics.
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