Today in crypto, RaveDAO denies involvement in RAVE token price surge and crash, Elizabeth Warren accused SEC Chair Paul Atkins of possibly misleading Congress. Meanwhile, the restaking protocol Kelp was exploited for $293 million.
RaveDAO denies manipulation as Binance, Bitget probe RAVE trading activity
RaveDAO has denied any role in the recent surge and sharp collapse of its RAVE token, as major crypto exchanges open probes into trading activity following allegations of market manipulation.
In a thread posted on X, the project said it was “not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action,” responding to mounting scrutiny after RAVE soared from roughly $0.25 to nearly $28 within days before plunging more than 80%.
The denial comes as onchain investigator ZachXBT accused the project of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme, pointing to concentrated token holdings and suspicious exchange flows. He claimed that more than 90% of the token supply may be controlled by insiders, calling on exchanges to take action.
Both Binance and Bitget confirmed they are reviewing the situation. “We’re looking into it,” Binance CEO Richard Teng wrote, while Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the exchange had “started investigating” RAVE trading activity.
Warren claims SEC’s Atkins likely misled Congress
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Commitee, accused Paul Atkins, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, of possibly misleading Congress about the agency’s enforcement activity.
Warren said in a letter to Atkins dated Wednesday that the SEC’s enforcement data for fiscal year 2025, released on April 7, raised “significant concerns” about his answers at a Feb. 12 congressional hearing, where Warren said Atkins told her he was “not sure what data” the Senator was looking at when asked about “a decline in SEC enforcement activity.”
“Now, it is clear that my assertion regarding the SEC’s declining enforcement actions was correct: the data you released last week show that the number of enforcement actions initiated by the SEC was lower than at any point in the last decade,” Warren said.
Warren said the SEC’s enforcement data showed its enforcement activity had dropped to the lowest level in more than 20 years. She added the hearing took place more than four months after the end of the fiscal year, and Atkins’ “deflection and claim to be unsure of the ‘data’ I was examining now appear deeply misleading, potentially designed to cast doubt on the now obvious fact that enforcement activity has declined significantly.”
Kelp exploited for $293 million
Kelp, a liquid restaking protocol, was exploited on Saturday and drained of $293 million in funds, according to blockchain cybersecurity analysts.
The platform’s bridge contract for its rsETH restaking token was exploited, according to blockchain security firm Cyvers. Kelp confirmed that it froze contracts for its rsETH token on its mainnet and several Layer-2 networks.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave froze rsETH markets on Aave V3 and V4. At least nine crypto protocols and platforms had exposure to the rsETH token and have taken steps to freeze activity or mitigate the fallout, Cyvers told Cointelegraph.
The incident is the latest in a string of cybersecurity attacks on crypto platforms in April, including the Drift Protocol hack, which drained the platform of $280 million.
