ZachXBT insider manipulation scrutiny rocks LAB token price

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has published an investigation containing weighty accusations directed at LAB, the multichain trading platform behind the token LAB. ZachXBT’s report details opaque private loans, unilateral vesting changes, and coordinated market-maker activity.

The price of LAB endured a price dip of about 10% at its lowest point following the report, after reaching its all-time high of $6.66 on May 11.

According to ZachXBT, insiders control more than 95% of the token supply and are behind a pump that pushed LAB to a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of over $6 billion. 

The token was trading around $5.57 at the time of writing, down by over 17.5% from its all-time high. 

ZachXBT’s in his thread frames the project as “everything wrong with the current meta of retail extraction on major centralized exchanges.”

How did a trading platform token become a $6 billion controversy?

LAB launched in October 2025 as a multi-chain trading terminal and had traded way below $1 for months before rising past $1 in early May with no material product announcement to explain the move. 

On May 1, the token moved from being traded around $0.68 to over $4.00 in roughly five days, hitting a 24-hour trading volume of over $280 million at some point.

On-chain analysts pointed out that wallets connected to the LAB team had moved 96 million LAB tokens, worth around $63 million, into Bitget ahead of the price surge. 

ZachXBT, in his long thread, shared the screenshots of the document of a loan contract obtained from the project’s BVI-registered entity, The Lab Management Ltd., signed by Sadkov as director. 

The borrower received USDT at 7.5% per month, with a default clause stipulating repayment in LAB tokens at “market price,” effectively transforming the loan into a token sale at whatever price insiders had driven the token to.

ZachXBT documented offers that LAB made, writing, “Other individuals received a menu over WhatsApp: loans at 5%/month, OTC at 60% discount with 5-month cliff, guaranteed discount OTC at 25% recalculated monthly, and a 20% guaranteed discount tranche.” 

LAB also reportedly pitched to key opinion leaders at an 80% discount, with token unlocks contingent on posting promotional content or facing blacklisting. 

Why is Bitget at the center of the LAB storm?

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain posted on May 12, “Ten fresh wallets withdrew 100M $LAB ($480.33M) from #Bitget over the past 12 hours, 32.26% of the circulating supply.”

Responding to Lookonchain’s post, ZachXBT called out Bitget’s founder Shawn Liu, stating that he is the “big boss who allows these scams to operate behind the scene,” while referring to CEO Gracy Chen as “only the face of it.” 

He also referred to the arrangement as a “Chinese CEX cartel” that had gone unchallenged for years, adding that he “thinks it is almost time to increase public attacks against Bitget.” 

Bitget had not issued any statements or made any public acknowledgments as it did around the time Zach called out the RAVE token. 

ZachXBT has called on Bitget, Binance, and Gate.io to freeze insider profits and redistribute them to users or delist LAB outright.

ZachXBT’s investigation connects the token’s infrastructure to the same entities he previously identified in the RAVE and RIVER manipulation investigations, which he calls an “unknown market maker operating via Chinese exchanges” running a consistent playbook across RIVER, RAVE, SIREN, MYX, SKYAI, and now LAB. 

The investigator has offered $10,000 for intel, adding that he has paid around $1,500 out of his own pocket. He also discouraged shorting the token, writing, “With this much supply control, shorts potentially give insiders more fuel to manipulate the price higher.”

The LAB team and its founder, Vova Sadkov, had not issued a public rebuttal at the time of writing.