On-chain investigator ZachXBT has offered a $10,000 bounty from his personal funds for whistleblowers willing to privately share evidence about the parties behind what he describes as a coordinated pump-and-dump in RaveDAO’s $RAVE token, according to a post published on X on April 18, 2026.
“Offering up to $10K bounty of my personal funds for whistleblowers to come forward privately to share evidence about parties involved,” ZachXBT wrote, after identifying Bitget, Binance and Gate as the venues where he alleges the manipulation originated.
What ZachXBT alleges
In the same post, ZachXBT called out Binance’s Yi He (@heyibinance) and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen (@GracyBitget) by name, urging both exchanges to “do better and launch internal investigation offboarding the responsible actors.”
He framed the situation as “blatant market manipulation by insiders controlling >90% RAVE supply to further extract from retail investors.”
His call follows a statement from RaveDAO the same day acknowledging “heightened market volatility” in $RAVE and advising users to “exercise caution, particularly when using leveraged positions.” The project did not address the concentration allegations.
The on-chain context
RaveDAO’s $RAVE token surged from approximately $0.25 to above $26 in seven days, briefly pushing its market capitalization near $4 billion. The move triggered more than $43 million in futures liquidations within a single 24-hour window, with over $32 million coming from short positions, according to Coinglass data
Blockchain records reviewed by multiple on-chain researchers indicate that three Gnosis Safe wallets — widely believed to be team-controlled — hold roughly 90% of the total $RAVE supply, with the top 10 wallets exceeding 98% concentration. Approximately 24% of the 1 billion total supply is in circulation.
On April 13, wallets linked to the RaveDAO deployer transferred approximately 18.58 million $RAVE tokens onto Bitget — roughly $19 million in notional value at the time — about ten hours before the vertical price move began. No public announcement accompanied the transfer. Researchers have characterized the subsequent pattern as a deliberate short-squeeze setup, with tokens flowing onto Bitget to bait shorts and later withdrawn as spot prices were pumped.
No response from RaveDAO leadership
ZachXBT disclosed that he contacted RaveDAO co-founder @wildwoodmoo privately eight hours before his public post and received no reply. The co-founder’s X account has been inactive since February 2026, according to public activity records.
Neither Binance, Bitget nor Gate had issued public responses to ZachXBT’s call at the time of publication.
What to watch next
Three developments will shape the story over the coming days: whether any of the three named exchanges announce an internal review, whether the three whale wallets holding ~90% of $RAVE supply move their tokens, and whether any whistleblower claims the bounty. Under MiCA, the EU’s market abuse framework for crypto-assets, coordinated manipulation of this kind would constitute a regulatory offense for any entity with European nexus.
For now, the $10,000 is on the table.
Update as of 10:56 A.M. UTC:
ZachXBT shared that he has raised the bounty to $25,000 following contributions from other members of the community.
Also Read: RaveDAO Short Squeeze: How RAVE is Still Pumping and Attracting Retail Traders
