Crypto Banter Alleges Price Manipulation by APTOS Developers

Ran Neuner, the founder of Crypto Banter, has alleged some manipulation in the price of APTOS. In a tweet, Neuner accused the project’s team of keeping the token’s circulation low and tight, pumping the price, and then dumping dev tokens.

According to Neuner, the APTOS price is not under manipulation for the first time. He expressed shock that people still fall for the old trick even after experiencing the bear market. A similar incident happened in 2022, which he expects should be a lesson for the community.

$APTOS is literally repeating the 2022 playbook of keeping token circulation low and tight, pumping price (starting in Asia) and the dumping dev tokens. How are people falling for this having been through a the bear market? pic.twitter.com/ryDqcRgCsk

— Ran Neuner (@cryptomanran) January 28, 2023

Neuner attached some screenshots to his tweet reflecting transactions he identified as suspicious. They contained information from the APTOS block explorer, Apscan, and the On-chain data provider, Token Unlocks.

Data shared on Token Unlocks reflected a sudden increase in APTOS tokens unlocked today, January 28, 2023. It coincides with the timing of the transaction that Neuner highlighted on Apscan. His tweet implied that APTOS insiders executed the transactions to create a price surge and attract more buyers for the token.

One of Neuner’s responders suggested more clarity on the status of the highlighted transactions. The Twitter user with the handle @ntoinep insinuated that the transaction could be to provide liquidity in the market. He gave the reason for his opinion as there are already over 14 million APTOS tokens in Binance 1, the exact destination for the tokens contained in Neuner’s highlighted transactions.

Spotonchain had raised a similar alarm five hours before Neuner. This time, the notice provided more details about the transactions, noting that One million APTOS tokens, worth approximately $18 million, were involved in the trade, which included a middle wallet before ending up at Binance.

1. ?? Large amounts of $APT is transferred from @Aptos_Network foundation wallet to @binance in the past hour:
– 1M $APT (~$18 million) are transferred out from Aptos 1 (Foundation wallet)
– Those tokens are transferred to a middle wallet before going to @binance exchange pic.twitter.com/oZ4raVYSaC

— spotonchain (@spotonchain) January 28, 2023

APTOS has been one of the most bullish cryptocurrencies since the beginning of 2023. Its price was below $4 at the beginning of the year. It has risen to $17.5 as of the time of writing. That reflects a 420% increase for the Layer 1 blockchain token, which launched in October 2022.

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