What You Need to Know:

• Venice AI made its debut on Monday as an AI platform on the Base network, providing users with access to China’s DeepSeek while ensuring privacy.
• Sentiment turned negative on Tuesday night when reports surfaced about insiders profiting significantly from the launch.

Newly introduced Venice AI’s VVV token experienced a substantial drop of up to 50% due to allegations of insider trading affecting initial positive perceptions of the highly anticipated product.

Launched on Monday, Venice AI’s platform allowed users to engage privately and without per-request fees, causing its market capitalization to skyrocket to $1 billion from an initial $20 million. The listing on Coinbase (COIN) on the day of launch further boosted this surge.

However, the mood shifted quickly when it was revealed that two contributors from Aerodrome Finance bought a significant number of tokens before public announcements, rapidly increasing their investment from $50,000 to $1 million in under an hour.

Aerodrome Finance announced the suspension of these contributors following community outcry:

“The timing of a small percentage of the trading activity around the $VVV launch was flagged by internal monitoring in less than 30 minutes – triggering an internal investigation.”

“This investigation resulted in suspending two contributors within three hours of launch. We are continuing the investigation and will take all appropriate further action.”