Vertex tokens have skyrocketed over 600% over the past week, marking a new annual high in 2025, riding the momentum of a decentralized permanent exchange token rally.
But concerns are rising as analysts point to potential red flags that include signs of a key insider purchase.
Why are the prices of Apex Protocol (Apex) soaring?
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For context, APEX is a native token for the Apex protocol, a multi-chine distributed derivative protocol. The token has been on the market for quite some time now, reaching an all-time high of $3.83 in May 2024.
We went through many ups and downs since then, but last week’s huge pump was particularly noteworthy. On September 26th, Apex’s value rose 262% from $0.53 to $1.92. An announcement of a collaboration between the vertex, mantle and bibit triggered the pump.
By the weekend, Apex had hit $2.7, marking its highest price since late June 2024. The rally gained even more traction after the Apex protocol launched its token buyback program.
“From next week, 50% of Apex Protocol’s daily revenue will be allocated to buy back Apex tokens from the open market, combined with a committed $12,000,000 of $12,000,000.
Nonetheless, Altcoin has undergone a fix. Data from Beincrypto Markets showed that Apex had soaked 24.67% in the past day. At the time of writing it was trading at $1.74.
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Despite the drops, Apex’s explosive rally is grateful for more than 600% among top trending coins and weekly top winners at Coingecko.
Are Apex’s rally sustainable or just market manipulation in disguise?
Meanwhile, price rallies have sparked concern among some market watchers.
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“Two days ago I asked if Bybit was involved in Apex. The support was Nope. Today, Bybit CEO is tweeting about EM, time about scam exits.
On-chain analyst Defi Tracer claimed that they were similar between Apex and Aster, with both tokens following the same pattern of thin supply and hype-driven pump.
He argued that only about 4% of the Aster supply was in circulation, with the remaining focused on the wallets of the six founders, making it easier to operate.
Analysts suggested that Apex reflects this setup, with Bybit CEO Ben Zhou unveiling the announcement of the Mantle-Apex collaboration, sparking a market capitalization jump from around $25 million to $300 million. He said “Heavy Insider Buys” played a role in promoting the rally.
“Wallet: 0xB88F3BC2AD32D3D256E26347D1AD24332A18185D. Hold: -413K $apex = ~$1 million. This wallet was pushing up the token.
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In addition to the buyback, Apex launched APE Season 1 with a pledge to distribute 69 million APE points over 12 weeks.
“Your apes will directly determine the share of future airdrops,” the team added.
Nevertheless, again, market commentators have expressed skepticism about the movement.
“The announcement dump for this post looks like the Apex team is unloading their bags, making the $12 million buyback before the next fraud pump a much lower price,” the user wrote.
So, while Apex’s meteor rise highlights how market catalysts can cause explosive gatherings in the crypto market, concerns overshadow the sustainability of these benefits.
