Key takeaways
- ZachXBT claims that LAB insiders control over 95% of the supply and have coordinated a 350% pump to a $6 billion FDV using Bitget infrastructure.
- The investigation exposes four simultaneous methods of retail extraction: over-the-counter loans at 7.5%/month, acquisition modifications, unpaid marketing rewards, and an opaque market-making agreement.
- ZachXBT posted a $10,000 bounty on LAB founder Vova Sadkov and called on Binance, Bitget and Gate to freeze insider profits or write them off immediately.
A $6 billion project built on a hidden bid
LAB launched its token generation event in October 2025, positioning itself as an AI-powered trading terminal. In early May 2026, the token surged more than 350% in less than 72 hours, briefly reaching a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $6 billion before crashing more than 65% in a matter of hours, a move that ZachXBT claims was engineered in coordination with an unknown market maker and Bitget insiders.
The investigation shows that wallets linked to the LAB team deposited 96 million LAB tokens into Bitget accounts shortly before the pump. Between March and April 2026, insiders accumulated 226 million LAB in Bitget addresses, where the tokens were dormant. Then, as Bitcoin.com News reported, 100 million LAB worth approximately $480 million grew to 10 freshly created wallets in a 12-hour window between May 11-12.
Four Ways the Team Extracts from Retail
ZachXBT demonstrated several simultaneous mining mechanisms working simultaneously:
(i) Private over-the-counter loans: Co-founder Vova Sadkov signed loan contracts with a monthly interest rate of 7.5% for six months, with OTC transactions at discounts of 60-80% to the market. Some arrangements required key opinion leaders (KOLs) to post promoting the project multiple times before their tokens could be unlocked, a compliance requirement built directly into the financial terms.
(ii) Acquisition changes: The LAB team unilaterally extended the suspension period for public auction participants from three months to nine months without the buyer’s consent. Participants who agreed to specific lockdown conditions found that these changed after the fact.
(iii) Recovery of marketing rewards: Creators who ran promotional campaigns for LAB reported waiting months for payments, with no clarity from the team on timelines or if payments would actually be made.
(iv) Opaque market making: ZachXBT identified a market-making agreement between LAB and an anonymous counterparty whose terms were never disclosed to token holders, a structure that allowed for coordinated price management without any transparency.
The Bitget angle
In all this, ZachXBT specifically named Bitgetcalling the exchange the “Chinese CEX cartel” that allows these systems to operate. It also named Shawn Liu, who is not CEO Gracy Chen, as a behind-the-scenes operator, alleging that Liu facilitates these arrangements while Chen is the public face of the exchange.
ZachXBT also posted a $10,000 bounty targeting LAB founder Vova Sadkov seeking contracts, chat recordings, or privileged documents from market-making activities on exchanges. Developments follow its presentation of the RAVE tokenin which he claimed that a group controlling more than 90% of its circulating supply was coordinating trade between exchanges to set up a pump and dump system.
LAB founders Vova Sadkov and co-founder Mark previously led Eesee, a project that left investors feeling abandoned when the team walked away without fulfilling its commitments.
