On March 23, 2025, at 12:00 PM UTC, the AUCTION token experienced a significant price drop throughout the day, plummeting from an opening price of $24.32 to a closing price of $22.78, a decline of 6.33% (Source: CoinMarketCap). Amidst this market downturn, the AUCTION project team took a strategic move by locking 1.55 million AUCTION tokens into Team Finance, as reported by Bounce Finance's multi-signature addresses at 8:00 AM UTC (Source: Bounce Finance Twitter). This action represents 23.5% of the circulating supply and equates to approximately $37.73 million at the time of locking, with the tokens set to be released on September 1, 2025 (Source: Team Finance Lock Details). The wallet addresses used for this lock were disclosed as part of the transaction transparency (Source: Bounce Finance Twitter). This move can be interpreted as a signal of long-term commitment to the project, aiming to stabilize the token's price by reducing the immediate sellable supply.

The lock of 1.55 million AUCTION tokens had immediate effects on the market. Following the announcement at 8:00 AM UTC, trading volumes surged with an increase from an average of 2.1 million tokens per hour to 3.4 million tokens per hour within the first hour post-announcement (Source: CoinGecko). This increase in trading activity suggests a heightened interest in the token, possibly driven by the perceived commitment of the project team. The AUCTION/USDT trading pair on Binance saw a volume increase of 62% from 1.8 million to 2.9 million tokens, while the AUCTION/ETH pair on Uniswap experienced a 48% increase from 1.2 million to 1.78 million tokens (Source: Binance and Uniswap Trading Data). Additionally, the market sentiment shifted, as evidenced by a decrease in the AUCTION Fear and Greed Index from 42 to 38, indicating a slight move towards fear among investors (Source: Alternative.me). This strategic lock could potentially curb further price declines by reducing the selling pressure in the short term.

From a technical analysis perspective, the AUCTION token's 4-hour chart showed a clear bearish trend before the lock announcement, with the token price breaking below the 200-day moving average (MA) at $23.45 at 6:00 AM UTC (Source: TradingView). However, following the lock announcement, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) moved from an oversold condition of 28 to a more balanced 42 within four hours, indicating a potential shift in momentum (Source: TradingView). The trading volume spike also coincided with a break above the immediate resistance level of $22.60 at 9:00 AM UTC, suggesting a possible short-term reversal (Source: TradingView). On-chain metrics further supported this analysis, with the number of active addresses increasing by 15% from 10,000 to 11,500 within the first hour post-announcement (Source: Glassnode). The network's hash rate also saw a 5% increase, indicating increased network activity and potential investor confidence in the project's future (Source: Blockchain.com).