Crypto exchanges too slow to react to RAVE collapse, ZachXBT

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 live music themed token saw its daily trading volume exceed $300 million in the run-up to its all-time high on Saturday, a market capitalization of $6.7 billion and a price of $27.

This was short-lived, however, as the token plummeted by -97% in the days that followed. 

Before RAVE’s collapse, on-chain investigator ZachXBT warned of “Pump and dump activity” from RAVE insiders trading the token on Binance, Bitget, and Gate.io.  

He accused RaveDAO of manipulating the token’s price by controlling over 90% of the token’s supply, which was allocated to three wallets connected to RaveDAO’s team. 

Read more: Vercel breach leaves DeFi frontends dangling on a $2M ransom

Zach also posted a bounty, which he later increased to $25,000, for any whistleblowers to come forward and share evidence about the parties involved. Today, OXK CEO Star Xu also said he would contribute an extra $25,000 on top of Zach’s original bounty.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, and Gate.io CBO Kevin Lee all announced that they would investigate the token following Zach’s warnings. 

However, Zach wasn’t impressed by the response time, and noted, “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 started to spiral by the time the crypto exchange’s announced investigations.

RaveDAO says it has nothing to do with RAVE’s collapse

RaveDAO is a music venue project that gave participants NFTs at its hosted gigs while donating a portion of the proceeds to charities. 

On Saturday, after the token collapsed, RaveDAO claimed its team “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 can “fund operations, global hiring, marketing, strategic acquisitions and philanthropic efforts.”

Solana user @FabianoSolana claims there are three major faces behind RaveDAO, co-founders Yemu Xu, Felix Xu, and core contributor Ronald Elliot Yung.

Zach failed to elicit a response from Yemu Xu on X days before the collapse. Felix Xu’s X posts are currently private, and neither Yemu Xu nor Yung has posted since February 2026. 

Read more: Crypto trader shorted the top, still lost 3,963%

Yemu Xu is the co-founder of the ARPA network and Bella Protocol, and is also an ambassador for the environmental magazine Ocean Geographic. Felix Xu also co-founded ARPA network and Bella Protocol, and the pair have featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia listing.

Yung claims to have studied at Harvard University and works for Penrose Tech, which was also co-founded by both Xu’s. Yung spoke to CoinDesk in 2025 about RaveDAO’s goals. 

Ironically, he said, “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 short RAVE and don’t buy $M, ZachXBT warns

Zach already warned users to avoid shorting the RAVE token due to its manipulated supply. Some traders attempted to short the RAVE token at its peak, but still lost profits tallying -3,963%.

Now Zach has moved on to another shady token created by MemeCore. $M reportedly had a market capitalization of $6 billion, while over 90% of its supply was controlled by insiders.

The token was promoted by Grayscale and Zach is again warning users against placing shorts against it.

Zach has since threatened to report MemeCore’s staff to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency after MemeCore’s CEO poked at Zach’s comments.

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