Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps has raised serious concerns over the launch of the Solana based AI token Ava after identifying what it says was coordinated insider activity tied to the project’s deployer. According to the firm, a cluster of 23 wallets linked to the deployer acquired close to 40 percent of the total AVA supply at launch, calling into question claims of a fair and community led debut.

In a post shared on X, Bubblemaps said these wallets displayed highly similar behaviour. They were funded within a narrow time window via centralised exchanges including Bitget and Binance, received almost identical amounts of Solana, and showed no prior on chain activity before purchasing AVA immediately at launch.

Signs of coordination across wallets

Bubblemaps stated that these wallets formed a sybil style cluster, a structure often used to disguise control by a single entity. The firm added that additional wallets also bought AVA very early under similar conditions, reinforcing suspicions of wider coordination.

Source: Bubblemaps

The patterns were uncovered using Bubblemaps’ Time Travel feature, a forensic analytics tool launched in May. The tool allows users to reconstruct historical token distributions to identify early insider accumulation that may not be obvious from current holdings.

In crypto trading, this behaviour is commonly referred to as sniping. It involves the use of automated bots to buy newly launched tokens the moment liquidity becomes available, often before retail investors are able to act.

Pump fun launch raises questions

AVA was launched via Pump fun, a memecoin launch platform that promotes decentralised and community driven token launches. However, Bubblemaps claims the early wallet activity effectively resulted in a single controlling interest holding roughly 40 percent of the supply.

Such concentration is widely viewed as a red flag within the crypto sector. Large insider holdings can enable practices such as rug pulls, where liquidity is withdrawn or large sell offs are staged, leading to sharp price collapses that leave later investors with heavy losses.

Token value collapses after early hype

The coordinated buying activity only came to light more than a year after AVA launched on 13 November 2024. The token initially saw strong momentum, reaching a fully diluted valuation of around 300 million dollars by January 2025. At that point, it was being promoted as a leading autonomous AI agent utility token on Solana.

Since then, performance has deteriorated sharply. CoinGecko data shows AVA is down more than 79 percent since launch and over 96 percent from its all time high of 0.33 dollars recorded on 15 January 2025.

Source: Bubblemaps

Holoworld yet to respond

Ava, also known as the HOLO AI intern, was the first AI agent built on Holoworld AI, a decentralised AI launchpad that allows users to create, play with, or fund agent based AI applications. Holoworld claims to have more than one million users and around 700,000 AI creations.

At the time of writing, Holoworld has been approached for comment regarding the alleged sybil wallet activity during the AVA token launch, but no response has yet been made public.