ZachXBT published a thread on May 14 with onchain flow diagrams, Telegram screenshots, loan contracts, and wallet traces alleging that more than 95% of LAB token supply is controlled by insiders. The token had pumped 3,700% in a single month to a $6 billion fully diluted valuation. His opening line: “Here is why @LABtrade_ represents everything wrong with the current meta of retail extraction.”
He offered a $10,000 bounty for market-making contracts or insider documents from LAB trading activity on Bitget, Bybit, Binance, and OKX.
The Founders Ran a Token That Dropped 93% Before This One
ZachXBT identified LAB’s founders as Vova Sadkov, a UAE-based developer, and Mark X, a self-described “Listing & Marketing Advisor” with a “2000+ KOLs Network” based in Dubai. Both previously ran Eesee, a gamified NFT marketplace that launched on Blast in April 2024. ESE is down 93.2% from its all-time high. An early Eesee angel investor said “investors got screwed over: vesting terms were changed right before TGE” to maximize the low-float high-FDV playbook.
ZachXBT said he tried to reach Sadkov directly but received no reply. Crypto exchanges have faced insider access problems before, but the LAB case is different. This is not a rogue employee. The allegation is that the founding team itself designed the supply structure to extract from retail.
No Token Distribution Exists. Anywhere.
LAB has a total supply of 1 billion tokens. CoinGecko reports 309 million circulating. CoinMarketCap shows a different number. RootData shows a third. The LAB docs themselves contain zero information about distribution, unlock schedules, or vesting. ZachXBT searched the docs for “distribution,” “unlock,” and “vesting.” Zero results on all three.
Based on onchain analysis, he estimates insiders control over 95% of the actual supply. The token has $4.75 million in onchain liquidity against a $1.47 billion market cap. That is a liquidity-to-market-cap ratio of 0.35%. A position that size can be moved with almost no capital.
The Playbook: Private Discounts, Exchange Deposits, Then Pump
Co-founder Mark X solicited OTC buyers in a public Telegram group on January 6: “Binance perps listed project open for OTC deals. Please DM who is interested.” In private messages, he offered LAB at a 60% discount with a 2-month cliff and 2-month vest when the token was trading at $1.87. KOL Capital participants got 80% discounts with unlocks in August and September. The condition: publicly promote LAB before receiving the allocation.
Between March and April, over 226 million LAB tokens were deposited into Bitget addresses. They sat inactive for weeks. Then 100 million were withdrawn in a single move that triggered ZachXBT’s initial investigation. On May 2, LAB surged from $0.33 to nearly $4.00. The timing between exchange deposits and price spikes matches patterns seen in other recent protocol exploits where the mechanics were different but the outcome was the same: retail provides exit liquidity.
ZachXBT Called Bitget a ‘Chinese CEX Cartel.’ Bitget Said It Would Investigate.
ZachXBT accused Bitget CEO Shawn Liu of enabling the scheme. He described centralized exchanges as entities that “have operated for years without facing sanctions for facilitating these schemes.” Bitget confirmed an investigation within hours. Binance said it would examine market misconduct. Gate.io signaled active review. None have announced results. Courts have shown they will hand down severe sentences for crypto fraud, but enforcement against exchange-facilitated manipulation is slower and rarer.
TRM Labs flow diagrams in ZachXBT’s thread trace funds from LAB operations to what he identifies as Sadkov’s personal exchange accounts, linked through his ENS name (vovaxx.eth) and OpenSea activity. The same accounts received deposits tied to Eesee before LAB existed. Marketing creators who ran campaigns through Cookie DAO reported waiting over six months for promised token payouts. As of May 2026, multiple creators say they have received none of the remaining 60% of their allocation.
LABtrade has not issued a public rebuttal. The token was trading near $4.61 at the time of ZachXBT’s thread. It remains listed on Binance, Bitget, Gate.io, and OKX.
