River (RIVER) surged to a record high of $48.56 during early Asian trading on Wednesday, capping a rally of nearly 750% over the past month, though derivatives data showing futures volume exceeding spot trading by more than 80 times has prompted warnings from analysts about potential price manipulation.
What Happened: Token Surges Amid $8M Investment
The DeFi protocol's native token appreciated 24.2% in the past 24 hours, far outpacing the broader market's roughly 1% gain. At press time, RIVER was trading at $46.68.
River operates a chain-abstraction stablecoin system that allows users to deploy collateral on one blockchain and access liquidity on another without bridges or wrapped assets.
Its core product is satUSD, an overcollateralized stablecoin.
The protocol announced Wednesday it had secured an $8 million strategic investment from Justin Sun.
"This investment supports ecosystem integration on @trondao and the deployment of River's chain abstraction stablecoin infrastructure," the team wrote in a statement.
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Why It Matters: Leverage Concerns Mount
CoinGlass flagged what it called an extreme imbalance in RIVER's market structure. The analytics platform noted that futures volume trading at more than 80 times spot volume means price is "constructed through leverage, driven by intentionally deployed volatility and repeated liquidation cycles."
"Best advice: don't participate," the firm wrote. "This is how retail gets harvested."
CoinGlass explained that by keeping prices suppressed while pushing funding rates deeply negative, markets can become crowded with short positions. A controlled upward move then triggers liquidations and forced short covering, leading to sharp rallies.
"This process can repeat multiple times: manufacture extreme funding, attract consensus positioning, force liquidation, reset," the firm stated. "It's price engineering, not price discovery."
Analyst Crypto Tony predicted RIVER could face a decline similar to that of Aurelia (BEAT).
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