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The EDGE token cratered. On June 1, it hit a record low of roughly $0.40, down from a peak of $1.54 just two weeks earlier — more than half its value, gone in a single day. Over $6.2 million in liquidations followed almost immediately.
On-chain researcher ZachXBT jumped in fast. He alleged insider manipulation, and his criticism of EdgeX’s response was pointed: “We investigated ourselves and did not find ourselves guilty even though we control nearly the entire supply.” That line spread quickly. ZachXBT also pushed back on what he saw as suspicious token distribution, saying the supply seemed concentrated among a small number of entities with very little circulating publicly. He challenged EdgeX directly to release their market maker agreements, calling for real transparency rather than internal self-assessment.
EdgeX didn’t stay quiet.
EdgeX Blames External Manipulation
The decentralized exchange behind the EDGE token posted on social media after the crash, calling it a “sudden and irregular price movement.” At first, the team said it was looking into the cause. Hours later, the tone shifted. EdgeX put out a stronger statement saying the protocol itself hadn’t been compromised. Instead, it blamed the collapse on deliberate market manipulation carried out by external parties. The team said it was working with exchanges to track down whoever was responsible and promised updates.
Whether those updates will satisfy critics is unclear. ZachXBT’s framing — that the supply concentration makes the self-investigation basically meaningless — is the kind of thing that sticks. Crypto markets have seen this pattern before: a token drops hard, the team denies wrongdoing, and the community is left parsing on-chain data and waiting for answers that sometimes never fully arrive.
Per CoinGecko, EDGE fell from $1.26 to around $0.40 before settling near $0.62. That’s still a brutal drawdown from the $1.54 peak just days earlier.
$6.2 Million in Liquidations, 3,840 Traders Hit
The damage to traders was real and fast. CoinGlass data put total liquidations at approximately $6.2 million within 24 hours. Long positions took the worst of it — $4.84 million of that total came from longs getting wiped out as the price dropped. The bulk of those forced closures happened on Binance, Bybit, and OKX. More than 3,840 traders were affected. Price volatility hit 74.77% on the day, which is wild even by crypto standards.
That kind of volatility in a single session isn’t just painful for individual traders — it raises bigger questions about how a token with apparently concentrated supply was trading on major platforms at those volumes in the first place.
And that’s probably the harder question here. Not just who manipulated the market, if anyone did, but how a token ends up in a position where one bad day can produce $6.2 million in liquidations and a 74% volatility reading.
A Rough Year for Crypto Security
The EDGE situation landed against an already rough backdrop for the industry. When the price collapsed, the first instinct for many was to suspect a hack — and honestly, that’s not surprising given what’s happened recently. DxSale got hit, draining over 1,400 liquidity pools on the BNB Chain of $7.3 million. The Verus bridge lost $11 million to theft. Liquidity provider TrustedVolumes took a $6 million hit. These aren’t small numbers, and they’ve made the crypto community pretty jumpy about sudden price moves.
EdgeX’s categorical denial of any security breach was probably necessary just to stop the bleeding on that front. But denying a hack doesn’t resolve the manipulation question. Those are two different things, and the market seems to know it.
ZachXBT’s push for transparency on market maker agreements is the kind of disclosure that would actually move the needle here. Right now, without that information, traders and observers are basically guessing at the structure behind EDGE’s price action. That’s not a great place to be.
The investigation is apparently ongoing. EdgeX says it’s collaborating with exchanges to identify the parties responsible. No names have surfaced publicly. No timeline has been given. And for the 3,840-plus traders who got liquidated on June 1, the answers — if they come at all — will arrive after the damage is already done.
EDGE was trading near $0.62 as of the latest available data.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What caused the EDGE token to drop 51% on June 1?
EdgeX attributed the collapse to deliberate market manipulation by external parties, not a protocol hack. On-chain researcher ZachXBT alleged the token’s supply was concentrated among a few entities with low public circulation.
How many traders were liquidated during the EDGE token crash?
More than 3,840 traders were affected, with roughly $6.2 million in total liquidations — $4.84 million of which came from long positions — spread across Binance, Bybit, and OKX.
