ZachXBT Alleges $LAB Insiders Control 95% of Supply

The May 14 thread outlines alleged opaque private loans and OTC deals at steep discounts. It also details unilateral vesting changes and coordinated market maker activity. Together, these mechanisms allegedly fueled an artificial pump that pushed $LAB to roughly $6 billion in fully diluted valuation.

ZachXBT has called on Bitget, Binance, and Gate to freeze insider profits and redistribute them to affected users. Alternatively, he suggested the exchanges delist the token entirely.

What ZachXBT’s Thread Alleges

The investigation thread details several categories of alleged insider activity. ZachXBT claims $LAB’s founders, Vladimir “Vova” Sadkov and co-founder Mark, ran private deals through a BVI shell entity. That entity, “The Lab Management Ltd.,” signed the loan contracts.

According to ZachXBT, these deals included 7.5% monthly loans over six months. If borrowers defaulted, they owed repayment in $LAB tokens at market price. A WhatsApp “menu” reportedly offered 60% discount OTC deals with a five-month cliff, 25% guaranteed monthly recalculated discounts, and 20% tranches.

More recently, a KOL Capital pitch allegedly offered 80% discounts. The terms required recipients to promote $LAB on social media or face blacklisting. Half of the tokens would unlock on August 14, with the rest following on September 15, according to the thread.

Vesting Changes and Float Confusion

ZachXBT also highlighted a unilateral change to vesting terms. Buyers in the Legion public sale allegedly received an email extending their cliff from three months to nine months. No public documentation of this change exists on-chain.

The circulating supply remains unclear. CoinGecko reports approximately 77 million tokens in circulation. CoinMarketCap lists roughly 310 million. RootData shows yet another figure. The total supply sits at 1 billion $LAB tokens.

This discrepancy directly affects how retail traders evaluate the market cap. At 77 million circulating tokens, it sits near $400 million. At 310 million, it climbs to roughly $1.45 billion. ZachXBT argues the true freely tradeable float falls far lower than any of these figures.

On-Chain Evidence on BNB Chain

All on-chain evidence in the thread points to BNB Smart Chain. Between March and April 2026, approximately 226 million $LAB tokens flowed into Bitget-linked addresses.

Then on May 11-12, roughly 100 million $LAB tokens moved to 10 separate wallets. At peak prices, that batch carried a value of approximately $482 million. ZachXBT claims only a handful of non-insider transfers exceeding $150,000 occurred since the token generation event.

A multisig signer connected to one of these wallets also has ties to prior RIVER token manipulation. That project followed a similar alleged playbook involving Chinese market makers and Bitget listings.

$LAB Insider Supply Control and the $6B Pump

$LAB rallied roughly 200% to 600% in the days before its all-time high of approximately $6.70 on May 11. Trading volume surged to between $88 million and $155 million in 24 hours. Most spot activity concentrated on Bitget.

Binance listed $LAB on its perpetual contracts and Alpha platform. Gate and other exchanges also carried the token. ZachXBT argues the combination of low visible float, concentrated insider holdings, and coordinated CEX momentum created ideal pump conditions.

Crypto analyst and fund manager Simon Dedic corroborated this view. “OKX, Gate, KuCoin, Mirana… GSR as their market maker: they’re all part of it. They’re sitting on a 323x,” Dedic wrote on X.

Backer and Exchange Overlap

The list of $LAB backers raises additional questions. OKX Ventures, Gate, KuCoin, and Mirana (Bybit’s investment arm) serve as both investors and listing exchanges for the token. GSR, a well-known crypto market maker, also backed the project.

This overlap means the entities providing trading access also hold financial positions in the token. ZachXBT argues this creates a conflict of interest. Exchanges profit from both listing fees and token appreciation under this arrangement.

Animoca Brands, Lemniscap, and Amber Group also participated in the raise, according to project disclosures. The official project documentation still lacks detailed tokenomics or a vesting schedule as of May 14.

Previous Project Raises Red Flags

Before $LAB, Sadkov’s team reportedly launched Eesee ($ESE). Community members have accused the founders of abandoning that project and its investors. While no formal legal proceedings have resulted from these claims, the pattern adds context to ZachXBT’s allegations.

Creators who worked with the $LAB team have also reported delayed marketing payouts, according to the thread. Co-founder Mark allegedly solicited OTC deals publicly in Telegram channels.

How Low-Float Manipulation Works

The alleged scheme follows a pattern that ZachXBT and other investigators have documented before. Private OTC deals and loans let insiders buy large blocks at steep discounts. These transactions bypass public order books entirely.

Because the deals carry hidden cliffs and lockups, the tokens never appear in circulating supply calculations. Market makers then coordinate buy pressure on CEX spot markets to ignite retail FOMO. Since the visible float stays tiny, even modest buy volume can move the price dramatically.

Retail traders see a surging token with what appears to be a normal market cap. In reality, insiders hold the vast majority of supply and can sell into the momentum they helped create. ZachXBT describes this as “everything wrong with the current meta of retail extraction.”

No Response From $LAB Team Yet

As of approximately 30 minutes after the thread dropped, neither @LABtrade_ nor Vova Sadkov had issued a public response. Earlier project posts from 2025 only vaguely addressed questions about vesting clarity.

The project describes itself as a multi-chain trading terminal. It offers spot and perpetual trading, limit orders, AI analytics, and low fees. The platform operates across Solana, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Base.

What Happens Next

ZachXBT’s track record gives weight to these allegations. He previously broke stories on the Lazarus Group, celebrity token scams, and multiple exchange hacks. His investigations have led to exchange freezes and law enforcement action in the past.

Bitget, Binance, and Gate have not yet responded to ZachXBT’s call to freeze funds. Earlier ZachXBT warnings about $LAB on May 7-12 received coverage from Crypto.news, Cryptopolitan, and AMBCrypto. He also posted a $10,000 bounty for information on the project. No major outlets like CoinDesk or The Block had covered today’s full thread at the time of publication.

For retail traders holding $LAB, the allegations highlight the importance of verifying tokenomics independently. Conflicting circulating supply data, missing on-chain vesting contracts, and opaque insider deals are warning signs that apply to any token. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.