On April 24, 2025, Binance announced it would delist ALPACA and three other tokens on May 2, however, the price of ALPACA rose instead of falling, surging by as much as 1100%. The logic behind this could be as follows:
Market overshooting and natural rebounds:
The panic selling triggered by the delisting news may have severely undervalued the price of ALPACA. For a DeFi project with an active community and trading volume, a price of 0.029 USDT corresponds to a market cap of just over 5 million USD, which is indeed too low. Some traders believe the market is overreacting to the delisting, so they quickly bought the dip, pushing the price back up.
Manipulators driving up the price:
Low market cap tokens, due to their small circulation and price sensitivity, often become targets for manipulators or big players. The delisting news triggered panic selling, pushing ALPACA prices to a low point, which conveniently provided an excellent opportunity for bottom fishers. Manipulators or big players might take advantage of this situation by making large purchases to raise the price. Furthermore, ALPACA supports futures trading on Binance, with a high proportion of open interest relative to market cap. Once the price rises rapidly, short sellers will be forced to close their positions, further driving up the price and creating a 'short squeeze' effect.
Retail investor FOMO sentiment:
When the ALPACA price started to rebound, discussions on social media quickly heated up. Coinbase data shows that 32.18% of X posts are bullish on ALPACA, while CoinGecko shows 75% of community members are bullish. Retail investors seeing the price rise quickly may rush in, further driving up the price.
Low speculation costs:
ALPACA is the only token among those delisted by Binance that has a contract, which makes it favorable for low-cost speculation, becoming the preferred target for funds.
The above conclusions are drawn from actual data, but the old cat feels there are significant hidden motives. Based on Binance's previous two delistings, it usually results in a complete collapse, and this time it is the only token with a contract. I suspect that coordination has already been done, and while the market retail investors think it’s short, we are going long. Those who went short on this coin have likely become cannon fodder; let’s mourn for three minutes here!
However, the project also faces numerous risks, such as Binance's delisting decision potentially prompting other exchanges to follow suit, leading to liquidity risks and high volatility. Investors need to be cautious and closely monitor market dynamics and project developments.
