A certain cryptocurrency project collapsed dramatically within a few days. The RAVE token fell by nearly 90% in just 24 hours, and roughly $5.7 billion was wiped from the market. With several major exchanges launching investigations, the entire market has been thrown into turmoil.

What on-chain investigators pointed to was that nearly 90% of RAVE’s supply was concentrated in three wallets associated with the team. What’s more concerning is that, right before the price surged, large amounts of tokens were sent from these wallets to exchanges. After rising nearly 110 times over 9 days from $0.25 to $27.33, a liquidation worth $44 million occurred on Friday. Much of it was losses for short position holders, but behind it was a pattern known as “bait-and-liquidate.”

The project side denied that it was “involved in price fluctuations,” but did not directly address specific on-chain allegations. They only vaguely said they were “considering an appropriate model” regarding the team’s token lockups, without providing any specific timeline or guarantees. Gate.io has posted a $25,000 bounty for an internal whistleblower, showing how seriously the incident is being taken.

Currently, RAVE’s price is trading around $1.08, and its circulating market cap has shrunk to about $250 million. The project, which started out as a Web3 entertainment platform and touted partnerships with multiple major cryptocurrency exchanges, has had market trust completely wiped out.