I think the devs or team members sold at cheap prices the premined or swapping other ways AEX coins when listed on CB. No one can have in a short time 30-40K AEX coins by mining or swapping from Aerium.
No big miners care this coin to mine like big amount. And before the swap its price was at least 75 sat. on CB. they swapped 1:121 by old coins.
So by a simple math 75 sa. x 121 = 9K
But we saw some ppl sold them on CB (and still trying to sell) at 2-3K. If  you have Aerium old coins at 9K how can you sell them as soon as when it listed on an exchange ?