The EDGE token collapsed to an all-time low of around $0.40 on June 1, less than two weeks after it hit an all-time high of $1.54.
The crash wiped off about 51% of the token’s value in a single day, triggering more than $6.2 million in liquidations across major exchanges and drawing immediate accusations of insider manipulation from on-chain researcher ZachXBT.
edgeX Points the Finger Outward
edgeX, the decentralized perpetual futures DEX that issues the EDGE token, posted on X several hours after the crash began, acknowledging what it called “a sudden and irregular price movement.” The team also said they were working to understand what happened. Two hours later, the project followed with a firmer statement, saying the following:
“The edgeX protocol were not compromised in any way. This is not a hack, exploit, or security breach. What we have identified so far suggests deliberate attempts by certain external party to manipulate the market price of EDGE.”
The company added that it was working with relevant exchanges and platforms to identify the cause and pursue accountability. It also promised to provide a more detailed update once the said investigations were over.
However, their explanation was not well received everywhere, with ZachXBT, an on-chain investigator known for calling out bad actors in crypto, pushing back directly and stating that the EDGE supply appeared to be controlled by a small group with low circulating float. He also challenged the edgeX team to disclose the platform’s counterparties and market maker agreements if they really cared about transparency, mocking the project’s self-investigation with a pointed paraphrase:
“We investigated ourselves and did not find ourselves guilty even though we control nearly the entire supply.”
On the price side, the damage was significant, with CoinGecko data showing that EDGE dropped from about $1.26 to near $0.40, which was a new all-time low, before it stabilized around $0.62 at the time of writing.
Additional data from CoinGlass showed the price fall caused liquidations of about $6.2 million in 24 hours, with long positions accounting for $4.84 million. That activity was mostly concentrated on Binance, Bybit, and OKX, which together handled the majority of the forced closures that affected at least 3,840 traders, with price volatility hitting 74.77% on the day.
A Rough Season for Crypto Security
There is a valid reason why many people, upon seeing EDGE’s behavior in the market, immediately thought its parent platform had been hacked and why edgeX came out to categorically deny that there had been such an incident.
This year, the crypto space has been rattled by a string of exploits, including a recent attack on DxSale, where more than 1,400 liquidity pools tied to its old contracts on the BNB Chain were drained of about $7.3 million worth of tokens. A hacker also stole about $11 million from the Verus bridge, while TrustedVolumes, a liquidity provider, lost just under $6 million.
The post ‘We Investigated Ourselves’: ZachXBT Slams EdgeX After Sudden Token Collapse appeared first on CryptoPotato.
