Web3 entertainment project RaveDAO publicly denied any involvement in the recent price action of its RAVE token on Saturday, hours before the token collapsed by more than 80%.

In a six-post X thread, the team said it was aware of circulating rumors and accusations and stated its team "is not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action." The thread did not address specific onchain allegations raised by critics, including supply concentration or the timing of exchange transfers before the rally.

The thread also outlined plans to liquidate portions of unlocked tokens to fund operations, hiring, marketing, and philanthropic efforts, and said the team was exploring price-triggered or performance-triggered locks to align incentives with ecosystem growth. "Building a movement requires resources, and we are committed to doing so sustainably and transparently," the team wrote.

RAVE climbed from roughly $0.25 to a peak near $28 in about nine days, per CoinGecko data. At its high, the token briefly ranked around the top 20 by market cap, surpassing Litecoin and Avalanche. It has since retraced sharply, trading around $3.47 Saturday afternoon, down roughly 84% on the day and more than 87% from its peak. Its current market cap stands at about $892 million.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT on Saturday accused the RaveDAO team of orchestrating a pump-and-dump and called on Binance, Bitget, and Gate.io to investigate. ZachXBT cited claims that roughly 90% of the 1 billion RAVE supply is held across three Gnosis Safe multi-sigs attributed to the team, with only about 24% of tokens currently in circulation.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said on X the exchange had opened an investigation into the trading activity, and Binance co-CEO Richard Teng subsequently confirmed Binance was also reviewing the matter. 

Founded in 2023, RaveDAO describes itself as a Web3 live entertainment platform offering onchain ticketing and community governance tied to electronic music events. The project lists partnerships with Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Polygon, and reports having hosted events in cities including Dubai, Singapore, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong.