Crypto exchanges Binance, Gate.io, and Bitget have all reportedly opened investigations into the $6 billion collapse of RaveDAO’s RAVE token this weekend.
The stay music themed token noticed its each day buying and selling quantity exceed $300 million within the run-up to its all-time excessive on Saturday, a market capitalization of $6.7 billion and a value of $27.
This was short-lived, nonetheless, because the token plummeted by -97% within the days that adopted.
Earlier than RAVE’s collapse, on-chain investigator ZachXBT warned of “Pump and dump activity” from RAVE insiders buying and selling the token on Binance, Bitget, and Gate.io.
He accused RaveDAO of manipulating the token’s value by controlling over 90% of the token’s provide, which was allotted to a few wallets related to RaveDAO’s crew.
A abstract of the RAVE -95% value fluctuation from $26 to $1 over the previous 24 hours.
RAVE Timeline: April 18, 2026
7:26 am UTC: I posted a name to motion for Binance, Bitget, & Gate to analyze RAVE market manipulation and provided a $10K bounty.
10:56 am UTC: I posted an… pic.twitter.com/mivKcdyBrw
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) April 19, 2026
ZachXBT graphed the response of main crypto trade execs in realtion to RAVE’s collapse.
Zach additionally posted a bounty, which he later elevated to $25,000, for any whistleblowers to return ahead and share proof in regards to the events concerned. At this time, OXK CEO Star Xu additionally stated he would contribute an additional $25,000 on prime of Zach’s unique bounty.
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, and Gate.io CBO Kevin Lee all introduced that they’d examine the token following Zach’s warnings.
Nevertheless, Zach wasn’t impressed by the response time, and famous, “Exchanges need faster intervention on manipulation.”
He added, “While it’s good the exchanges responded, I find it unlikely this activity wasn’t spotted internally before I raised it publicly.”
The token had already began to spiral by the point the crypto trade’s introduced investigations.
RaveDAO says it has nothing to do with RAVE’s collapse
RaveDAO is a music venue mission that gave members NFTs at its hosted gigs whereas donating a portion of the proceeds to charities.
On Saturday, after the token collapsed, RaveDAO claimed its crew “is not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action.”
It added that it plans to liquidate some unlocked tokens “based on TRS” so it will possibly “fund operations, global hiring, marketing, strategic acquisitions and philanthropic efforts.”
Zach did not elicit a response from Yemu Xu on X days earlier than the collapse. Felix Xu’s X posts are at the moment non-public, and neither Yemu Xu nor Yung has posted since February 2026.
All of RaveDAO’s listed companions.
Yemu Xu is the co-founder of the ARPA community and Bella Protocol, and can also be an envoy for the environmental journal Ocean Geographic. Felix Xu additionally co-founded ARPA community and Bella Protocol, and the pair have featured in Forbes’ 30 underneath 30 Asia itemizing.
Yung claims to have studied at Harvard College and works for Penrose Tech, which was additionally co-founded by each Xu’s. Yung spoke to CoinDesk in 2025 about RaveDAO’s objectives.
Paradoxically, he stated, “The winners will be platforms that treat culture as a living ecosystem, not a quick flip, and that balance on-chain innovation with the off-chain work of building trust.”
Don’t brief RAVE and don’t purchase $M, ZachXBT warns
Zach already warned customers to keep away from shorting the RAVE token on account of its manipulated provide. Some merchants tried to brief the RAVE token at its peak, however nonetheless misplaced income tallying -3,963%.
Now Zach has moved on to a different shady token created by MemeCore. $M reportedly had a market capitalization of $6 billion, whereas over 90% of its provide was managed by insiders.
The token was promoted by Grayscale and Zach is once more warning customers towards inserting shorts towards it.
Zach has since threatened to report MemeCore’s workers to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement company after MemeCore’s CEO poked at Zach’s feedback.
