RAVE Pump-and-Dump Allegations Spark $25,000 Bounty and Exchange Pressure

On-chain investigator ZachXBT has accused insiders of running a coordinated pump-and-dump scheme involving RaveDAO (RAVE) across major centralized exchanges.

The allegations follow RAVE’s roughly 5,600% price surge in one week. The token climbed from $0.25 to $14.19 before correcting sharply.

Insiders Allegedly Controlled Over 90% of RAVE Supply

ZachXBT alleged that a group controlling more than 90% of RAVE’s circulating supply coordinated manipulation on Binance, Bitget, and Gate.

On-chain data shows approximately $42 million in RAVE was transferred to Bitget, with $32 million withdrawn back on-chain shortly after.

That tactic appeared designed to bait short sellers. With actual sell pressure removed from order books, forced liquidations triggered a mechanical buying cascade.

RAVE recorded $30.6 million in derivatives liquidations within 24 hours, trailing only Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

ZachXBT called on Binance and Bitget leadership to launch internal investigations and remove responsible actors. He initially offered $10,000 of personal funds for whistleblowers to come forward privately. Community contributions later pushed the bounty to $25,000.

Bitget Responds to Pressure

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen responded publicly after growing community pressure. The exchange’s initial acknowledgment signals willingness to address the claims, though specific actions have not been disclosed.

ZachXBT urged the crypto community to keep pressing centralized platforms for transparency. Whether Binance and Gate will open similar reviews in the coming days remains an open question.

RaveDAO (RAVE) Price Performance. Source: Coingecko

RaveDAO’s powering token, RAVE, is down by almost 27% in the last 24 hours, and was trading for $13.77 as of this writing.