LAB fell about 56% after a wallet first funded by the LAB team sold 18.4 million tokens worth roughly $18.3 million through Aster. On-chain investigator ZachXBT said the sales happened over 48 hours and dragged LAB from about $1.20 to $0.55.

The crash occurred just before token drops were supposed to begin, and although the team blamed “large market participants,” Zach connected the selling wallet to an older group of tokens that had been distributed by the project.

The wallet holds 81.5 million LAB. Zach traced its activity back to April 2026 and connected it with his May report on private lending, discounted sales, supply control, changed lockups, and unusual market-maker activity.

ZachXBT traces 196 million LAB through Bitget and Aster

Zach said the entity received more than 196 million LAB from the project in April. On April 8, it sent 100 million LAB into two Bitget accounts. The deposit addresses were 0xe39f91a0daffc5547ada79a09be30b8556f7dfba and 0x77156a0a621d2ac7a075c0ac3172707c2e4aa191.

A second batch followed from April 23 through April 25. The entity placed another 96 million LAB into two different Bitget addresses: 0x6593aa6c31c88397c37f71259625ec92fe4ee0bf and 0xdd77bfbdc11cd37fd255ae35a4ac39df1f9d570a.

Some 100 million LAB were moved out of Bitget between May 11 and May 12 into ten wallets. According to Zach, the trading history from that period does not show any external party building such a big stake. He thus concluded that both transactions belong to one party.

From July 10 through July 11, the holder began sending LAB to three Aster accounts: 0xaad30cab22f772c1658b7845b5837d35bf3a467a, 0x76ccfde9819500204985580d235dd8326fa0b241, and 0x628dd74f428a81cd34ece11331a7f1593f76047a. Zach said spot sales on the decentralized exchange pushed the price down another 54%.

His Telegram warning said the wallet was “initially funded by the LAB team” before it placed the 18.4 million tokens on Aster.

“It is disappointing no action was taken by Bitget, Binance, or Gate for allowing blatant market manipulation on tokens against users,” said Zach.

Earlier findings cover hidden supply, loans, and discounted LAB sales

Zach’s May report said LAB reached a $6 billion fully diluted value while data still gave no firm answer on the circulating supply. CoinGecko, RootData, and CoinMarketCap showed different figures, and the project’s papers did not explain how tokens were divided. His wallet review placed more than 95% of LAB under insider control.

Vova Sadkov and Mark created LAB as a trading platform and held its token launch in October 2025. Their earlier project, Eesee, used the token symbol ESE. Some investors said the founders left that project behind when they started working on LAB.

The listed backers were Lemniscap, OKX, Animoca Brands, GSR, Gate, KuCoin, Mirana, and Amber Group. Several also ran trading venues where LAB was available.

The report said the team changed Legion sale terms without a vote. Buyers had a three-month waiting period, but an email shared by one participant showed that period had become nine months. Content creators also said they had waited for months for campaign payments and received no clear answer.

One private contract offered 7.5% interest each month for six months. The borrower was The Lab Management Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company, and Vladimir Sadkov signed as director. If the firm failed to repay, the agreement allowed payment in LAB at the market price.

The borrower wallet, shortened as 0xf09c, was also used for public LAB buybacks. Zach linked it to 0x3185, an address tied to a Wildcat loan. He said LAB funds reached exchange accounts allegedly belonging to Vova. Those accounts had also received Eesee-related deposits before LAB existed and were tied to his ENS name and NFT collection.

Private offers had circulated since January 2026. Mark looked for OTC buyers in a public Telegram chat. Other buyers received WhatsApp terms that included loans at 5% a month, LAB at a 60% discount with a five-month lock, a 25% monthly reset discount, and another block sold 20% below market.

A KOL Capital offer cut the price by 80%. Half the tokens were due on August 14 and the rest on September 15. Buyers had to post support several times before receiving the tokens or face a blacklist. Zach said these deals created token releases that ordinary buyers could not see, while deeper discounts appeared as LAB climbed.

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