Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
On October 18, the new coin Astra Nova (RVV) launched on Binance Alpha, sparking widespread controversy. Within hours of its launch, the project's related wallets were found to be continuously dumping tokens, causing the RVV price to plummet from a high of about $0.03 to $0.007, a drop of up to 76%. It is rare in the crypto industry for a project to be so brazenly "offloading" right after its launch on Binance. Why has Astra Nova become such a typical case?
AI, Saudi Arabia, and the Opening of "Grand Narratives"
Astra Nova claims to be headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is an AI-driven Web3 entertainment ecosystem, focusing primarily on gaming, NFTs, and creator tools. Founded in 2020, it is positioned as "the first AI entertainment ecosystem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," with a vision to integrate AI-generated content, blockchain, and player narratives to create a "new era of digital entertainment kingdom."
On October 16, Binance announced the launch of the RVV token presale. The goal of this event was to raise 172.1 BNB, but it received 90,612 BNB, over-subscribed by 520 times. For a moment, RVV seemed to become a "star project."
Astra Nova also announced the completion of $48.3 million in financing, of which $41.6 million came from the latest strategic round. Participants reportedly included family offices and institutional investors from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain. In the current financing environment, such figures are quite attractive.
However, crypto KOL @cryptobraveHQ discovered that there were no well-known crypto institutions among the disclosed investors, with the only notable name being the crypto incubation firm Outlier Ventures.
The facade of "AI + Middle East + Big Financing" seems to cover some hollow substance. 
Sudden Changes in Airdrop Rules: Prelude to Trust Collapse
The Astra Nova project team originally promised to fairly distribute 3% of the tokens as airdrop rewards through a points system. Users could accumulate points by holding NFTs, staking, or participating in tasks.
The turmoil began one hour before the launch on October 18. The project team suddenly announced a rule change, limiting airdrop rewards to only the top 15,000 users on the leaderboard, deviating from the previously widely promoted 3% token distribution plan. Even more shockingly, thousands of real users found their rankings on the leaderboard collectively "moved down" by about 15,000 places—many loyal participants who were originally in the top 500 (including NFT holders and long-term stakers) were pushed out of the list overnight and received no rewards.
The community quickly erupted in doubt on the X platform, suspecting that the project team manipulated the leaderboard through bot accounts to siphon off airdrop shares. More seriously, the promised 7 NFTs + 3 special edition rewards were never fulfilled. As the wave of skepticism grew, Astra Nova's Discord and Telegram groups were subsequently locked, and communication channels were nearly severed.
Meanwhile, users who participated in the presale were originally scheduled to unlock 50% of their tokens at TGE, but the project team changed the rules at the last minute: it was changed to a 7-month cliff + 12-month vesting period. This change meant that users could not sell their tokens in the short term, and their funds were locked for a long time, further inciting community dissatisfaction.
Plummeting Prices and "Hacker Incident": Who's Behind It?
On October 18, Binance Alpha launched the RVV token and officially opened trading. With an initial supply of 10 billion tokens, part of the circulating supply was unlocked. The price initially rose briefly but soon exhibited abnormalities. Suspected team addresses began to dump large amounts of tokens, leading to a rapid depletion of liquidity.
Binance Alpha subsequently urgently delisted the token, citing "technical incompatibility" or "potential hacker risks," marking one of the fastest delistings in Binance's history. However, token futures contracts continued, causing retail investors to face continuous liquidation under high leverage. Consequently, the community accused Binance of lax review processes.
Under community pressure, Astra Nova later issued a statement claiming that "a third-party market maker account was hacked." After the attacker took control of the account, they began to sell off assets. The team stated that they promptly notified all exchange partners after the incident and confirmed that the project's smart contracts and infrastructure were completely secure and audited. Currently, the team is working with on-chain security analysis firms to trace the flow of funds and will hand over the evidence to law enforcement once collected.
Currently, spot trading is no longer possible, and contracts still carry risks. The Astra Nova project team stated that they would repurchase the same number of tokens affected from the market.
Regarding the hacker attack on Astra Nova, there are voices in the community suggesting that the team may have "stolen from themselves" or "orchestrated the incident."
Ember: Which hacker would convert stolen money into USDT and then transfer it to a centralized exchange?
On-chain analyst Ember stated that about 860 million RVV (8.6% of the total) was transferred from the project's minting contract and sold on-chain, causing a severe drop in RVV. This 860 million RVV was sold for 10.288 million USDT, of which 8.226 million USDT was transferred to Gate and Kucoin, while another 2.041 million USDT remained in the on-chain wallet 0x643. The project team tweeted that it was stolen, but I personally express skepticism. Which hacker would convert stolen assets into USDT and hold them? Moreover, they directly transferred it to a CEX. USDT can be frozen.
AB Kuai.Dong: Offending Exchanges, Secondary Investors, Institutions, and Influencers Simultaneously
Crypto KOL @AB Kuai.Dong bluntly stated that Astra Nova has offended exchanges, secondary investors, institutions, and influencers all at once. The project not only dumped tokens on-chain but was also urgently warned of risks by Binance, and under the guise of exchange requirements, forcibly modified the unlocking methods for all investors.
There are even further revelations that Astra Nova's actions are not an isolated case; they previously learned of a "dumping arbitrage" strategy during discussions with some market makers: If the project can launch on Binance Alpha and open contract trading, it is already a significant positive. Other major exchanges are out of reach. Therefore, rather than being pressured by airdrop dumping, it is better for the project team to join in and dump together. Ultimately, the profits from contracts + dumping the pool will definitely exceed the collateral required for listing.
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