The RAVE token, native to the RaveDAO protocol, took center stage in one of the most extreme moves in the cryptocurrency market in recent times. After an explosive rise in which the market capitalization increased more than 100 times in just 11 days (from April 7th to 18th, 2026), the price plummeted by 96% in just 24 hours on Saturday the 18th, raising strong suspicions of manipulation.
The following graph shows that RAVE price trends from December 12, 2026 to the time of this publication:
According to a public complaint filed by researchers On-chain He is known as ZachXBT on social network X,This increase is not in response to intrinsic market interest; pump and dump (artificial inflation followed by massive sales).
RAVE grew from approximately $60 million in capital to nearly $6 billion in less than two weeks. It fell from about $26 per token to about $1 in less than a daythe settlement in that 24-hour period was just $52 million.
The token was launched on December 12, 2025 through Binance Alpha and other exchanges, with a total supply of 1 billion units. The first factor that raises questions is distribution. According to the data On-chain, 95% of supply was concentrated in just 9 wallet addresses After initial distribution.
Part of the enthusiasm that fueled RAVE’s rise was due to the promotion of a concert in Hong Kong by DJ and producer Rose Ringed, held in conjunction with RaveDAO. ZachXBT believes this token is useless and claims that this rise is related to market manipulation.
The fall was even more sudden than the rise. Most shockingly, according to ZachXBT, $6 billion in capital was wiped out after paying just $52 million in liquidations on leveraged positions. If the amount of these liquidations exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, this reaction would be more logical.
The researchers believe that this extreme imbalance is a clear sign that prices do not reflect real demand, but are instead an artificially inflated bubble.
RaveDAO issued a public statement through its X account denying the team’s responsibility for the price action and asserting that it will continue to focus on mass adoption of Web3 through live events.
As for them, Major trading platforms involved responded quickly. Binance and Bigget officials confirmed that they have launched an internal investigation into possible market abuse.
In this sense, it is worth mentioning that ZachXBT is offering a reward of USD 25,000 to anyone who shares verifiable evidence of market manipulation in this particular case.
(Tag Translation) Altcoins
