Following the listing and subsequent delisting of TokenFi (TOKEN) by Bitget crypto exchange, allegations of market manipulation have been exchanged between Bitget and Floki Web3 protocol teams.
According to a social media post on October 31, the Floki team alleges that Bitget listed their token before its official launch, branding the listing as a “fake token.” Bitget, in response, accused Floki of intentionally controlling the initial liquidity in a suspected act of market manipulation.
Floki’s team had previously submitted a proposal to the Floki Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) on October 18 to launch a staking program. They had also urged centralized exchanges not to list the token until at least seven days post-launch, as per DAO rules. However, they claim Bitget violated this agreement by prematurely listing TokenFi.
On October 26, Floki warned investors against unauthorized TOKEN listings on centralized exchanges. The TokenFi token, scheduled to launch at 3 p.m. UTC on October 27, was listed at an initial price of $0.00005011. Immediately after launch, its price rose to $0.006053 per coin.
According to Floki, Bitget listed TOKEN without any available to sell, resulting in a $20 million liability to customers and no TOKEN assets to hedge this liability. Bitget allegedly tried to buy tokens from the TokenFi treasury at a 90% discount to its current market price, which Floki refused. Bitget responded by delisting the token.
Bitget, in their statement, claims they observed significant price fluctuations following TOKEN’s listing and suspected market manipulation. They also offered to buy back all the TOKEN sold to their customers at the peak price before delisting, covering any losses incurred before the delisting.
The Floki team refutes Bitget’s claim of only providing $2,000 worth of tokens in the initial liquidity pool, stating that they provided nearly $2 million in liquidity. However, Cointelegraph could not verify the initial liquidity of TOKEN at the time of publication.
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