CORE, the native token of Core DAO, fell by about 50% in 24 hours. In its public statement, Core DAO said the move began with a cluster of large sell orders hitting the market in a short period. That pressure spilled into Colend, a lending protocol linked to the Core ecosystem, where leveraged positions were pushed into liquidation.
Large sells turned into a liquidation loop
According to the team, once CORE started sliding, some leveraged positions on Colend dropped to required collateral thresholds and were automatically liquidated. The process added more sell pressure. Prices fell again, more positions were forced out, and the decline fed on itself.
Core DAO said the protocol functioned as intended and described the crash as a market event rather than a technical malfunction. The team also said most of the affected positions have now been cleared, with only limited exposure left in the system.
Core Foundation and Colend move to steady operations
After the sharp drop, the Core Foundation and the Colend team said they were monitoring the market and working to keep operations orderly. Their message was direct: this was not a structural failure of the protocol.
That explanation did not end the debate. Attention quickly shifted to who sold first and whether one large holder set off the broader chain reaction.
Analysts compare the move with earlier crypto crashes
Crypto analyst MOON JEFF described the event as part of a recurring market pattern and compared it with last year’s Mantra crash. His point was that sudden collapses can emerge from the same mix of leverage, thin liquidity, and bad timing, even when the trigger appears project-specific.
At the same time, an X user raised concerns about transparency and possible insider involvement. The post pointed to CORE’s plunge from around $7 to near-zero levels and flagged two issues: comments were locked soon after the team addressed the crash, and reports suggested that a large holder may have sold about 2.8 million CORE.
On-chain claims focus on one wallet
Another on-chain observer added a more specific allegation, saying a wallet had sold nearly 3 million CORE and later reduced its holdings to almost nothing. That detail strengthened the idea that a single major seller may have started the sequence that ended in forced liquidations.
Even so, the seller’s identity and intent remain unclear. What the team statement and the on-chain commentary share is the same starting point: large market sells hit first, and lending liquidations on Colend amplified the move.
What CORE is used for in the ecosystem
CORE is the native token of the Core DAO ecosystem and is used for staking, governance, and network fees. After the sell-off, the immediate market focus remains on whether liquidation pressure has fully cleared and whether any borrowing positions inside the ecosystem are still vulnerable.