Two Tokens, One Crash: Tracing the ACT and IP

On April 15, 2025, the prices of two tokens (ACT and IP) crashed almost simultaneously: 

• ACT dropped by 27% 
• IP fell by 25% 

However, the price quickly bounced back, suggesting that someone bought the dip. This happened without any major trigger, such as negative news or broader market instability.

ACT comes from the AI sector, while IP is the native token of Story Protocol, an infrastructure project focused on intellectual property tokenization. 

The two projects are unrelated in terms of use case or narrative. However, based on chart data, both tokens appeared to react simultaneously, as if triggered by the same sudden market movement.

This wasn’t a minor fluctuation. For IP, trading volume hit $40 million before the drop and surged to $138 million during the rebound. ACT also recorded multi-million dollar volume, with most of the activity concentrated on Binance Futures.

The community quickly drew parallels to the recent MANTRA (OM) crash, where the token lost 90% of its value in just one hour. 

Posts started appearing on X with comments like: 

• “Another one?”
• “Infrastructure glitch?” 
• “Binance again?”

One of the most notable tweets came from analyst Route 2 FI:

There were no official reports of outages, hacks, or incidents. But when two major tokens drop sharply and then rebound just as fast, it’s not random noise. It’s a clear symptom.

What the Numbers Show: Binance Wallet at the Center of the Drop

Looking at the chart alone, the sharp drops in ACT and IP might look like random market moves. But data tells a different story. This “coincidence” traces back to a specific address: Binance.

For ACT, Binance recorded over 1.27 million futures trades, more than double the volume seen on the next largest exchange, BingX. Meanwhile, open interest peaked above $20 million, a level that rarely reflects organic trading. The data suggests an overheated market with high leverage at play.

For IP, the pressure came from spot trading. Trading volume reached $40 million before the drop and jumped to $138 million after, mostly on Binance and OKX. These figures show that sellers exited aggressively, but buyers seemed ready, possibly even ahead of time.

All of this took place during a period of market stability. BTC held near $84,000, and altcoins showed minimal volatility. There were no signs of panic and no major news events. 

Still, both tokens dropped sharply and rebounded just as quickly.

In this case, Binance was more than just a trading venue—it likely acted as the catalyst. While OM was the focus just a day earlier, attention has now shifted to ACT and IP. The pattern remains familiar: one dominant source of volume, a sharp wave of liquidations, and no clear fundamental trigger.

Crash Mechanics: Liquidations, Algorithms, and a Market Without Brakes

When a price drop starts with trading activity rather than news, the cause often lies in market mechanics. In the case of ACT and IP, all signs point to one trigger, Binance Futures.

ACT futures held a large concentration of long positions. Once the price moved slightly lower, a cascade of liquidations followed. One stop triggered the next, margin calls failed to keep up, and the price fell rapidly. The move wasn’t driven by fundamentals or insider news, it was a chain reaction in a market moving too fast to pause.

In IP’s case, the pressure came from spot trading. Still, the price action followed a similar pattern. It didn’t resemble organic selling, it looked more like a series of intentional sell-offs aimed at forcing the market lower. Community members on X shared several theories, including discounted OTC deals and involvement from a mysterious “S-market maker.”

However, none of these claims have been confirmed.

Events like this add to the sense of market absurdity. One of the most accurate comments came from an X user: 

This is not a pumpfun shitcoin, but a $4bn FDV coin. What is going on?

In traditional markets, a token with a multi-billion-dollar market cap isn’t expected to drop 25% within hours, let alone bounce back just as fast. However, in crypto, where price action is often driven by algorithms and liquidity is concentrated in order books, these moves are becoming common.

Moreover, the strength of the project doesn’t always matter. In a system without breaks, a single mistake can trigger a crash in price.

Related: How to Use Order Book When Trading?

Too Frequent to Be Random

Over the past two days, the market has seen three sharp declines, all involving tokens positioned as “infrastructure of the future.” First MANTRA (OM), then ACT, and now IP. 

This doesn’t look like an issue with a single asset. It points to a broader system symptom.

Futures trading, algorithmic orders, overheated positions, and the lack of protective tools on exchanges create a market where prices are shaped not by product demand but by order book depth and trader behavior.

A project can have strong fundamentals, but if it’s facing overheated long positions on Binance Futures and limited liquidity, a 20% drop can happen within minutes.

This shift changes the focus: the crypto market is evolving into a market driven by derivatives, not tokens. Investors are focusing on short-term price action rather than long-term value. As a result, even infrastructure assets are becoming more exposed, not to product failure, but to sudden technical pressure in the order book.

One incident might be a warning. Three begin to form a pattern.

Not a Rug Pull, but a Red Flag

ACT and IP are still active. The teams didn’t disappear, the funds remain intact, and the websites are functioning. This wasn’t a rug pull. 

But calling it normal volatility doesn’t fit either. These are tokens with billion-dollar FDVs that dropped 25% simply because futures markets became overheated

This isn’t an ecosystem collapse, but it’s a red flag for crypto’s pricing model. 

And it raises serious concerns for mid-cap tokens.

The issue isn’t just why ACT and IP dropped. The bigger question is how many more of these “technical” crashes the market can handle before confidence in the model starts to fade, especially among retail traders and new investors watching tokens collapse in an hour with no clear reason.