On May 7th, on-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly offered a $10,000 reward to gather information on LAB token's founder, vsadkovv (Vova Sadkov), including passport, government-issued ID, as well as internal documents such as the liquidity provider contracts used by LAB on Bitget Spot, Bybit Perpetual, Binance Perpetual, OKX Perpetual, and chat records.
ZachXBT stated that they had previously tried to contact the LAB team privately but received no response, leading to this public escalation. In a tweet, he specifically pointed out that while vsadkovv was posting "philosophical reflections" on social media to cultivate a personal image, he was also involved in price manipulation of the token, describing such behavior as "further undermining the overall credibility of the cryptocurrency industry."
On the same day, on-chain analyst Specter released a more detailed on-chain tracking report, categorizing LAB's price movement as a pump and dump orchestrated manipulation.
A Premeditated Pump and Dump
LAB is a multi-chain trading terminal project that supports spot, limit orders, and perpetual contracts across multiple chains, focusing on AI-driven analytics tools. According to several on-chain analysts, an estimated 95% of LAB's token supply is held by the team and insiders. Specter identified at least six wallet addresses associated with the team that still hold significant amounts of LAB tokens.
Looking at the price chart, LAB had been trading sideways in the $0.2 to $0.5 range throughout early to late April. Around April 28th, it started a stair-step rally, gradually breaking through the $1 and $2 levels, and on May 4th, it accelerated to nearly $5, marking a price increase of over 1300% in almost 30 days. However, there were significant price fluctuations during this period, with several sharp pullbacks after rallies.
According to Arkham monitoring, the core related addresses of LAB began intensive fund consolidation to three Bitget deposit addresses (0xDd7..., 0x659...) around April 24th. It was calculated that these two addresses collectively received 100 million LAB tokens, worth around $64.96 million, followed by the funds being transferred to Bitget's hot wallet.
On April 25, the address transferred 18 million LAB tokens to Bitget's deposit address in two separate transactions, with a total value of approximately $15.39 million. Analysis indicates that the circulating supply of LAB is 230.4 million tokens, and the total amount received by the Bitget deposit address accounted for about 50% of its circulating supply. During a price surge, a large amount of chips converging on a trading platform may signify potential future selling for profit-taking or position adjustments by market makers.
According to Specter's analysis, starting in May, addresses associated with the LAB project began engaging in a series of highly suspicious on-chain transactions.
One address (0xb61d2e77...f18a103e5) conducted multiple Multicall and Transfer transactions on May 5, involving interactions with SushiSwap V3 and contract creations. Of particular note, on May 4, another group of addresses (0x11F9b0f4...DF8e61Df) initiated at least 9 consecutive deposit transactions to the Tornado Cash Router, with each transaction amounting to 100 ETH, totaling at least 900 ETH. Additionally, there was a 10 ETH deposit and a 1 ETH deposit, totaling over 911 ETH.
Post-Rug Pull: Project Team Continues Large Token Transfers
It is worth noting that even after the public bounty offer by ZachXBT to trace the funds, the LAB project team's on-chain activities did not cease. According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, on May 7, an address received 3.66 million LAB tokens worth approximately $14.07 million from the LAB project's multi-signature address (0x36F...0C291).
The source of these funds traces back to the LAB token's deployment address. Subsequently, the address transferred 2.125 million tokens to two contract addresses, with the purpose currently unclear.
Regarding the price action, following ZachXBT's accusations, LAB briefly plummeted from nearly $5 to $3 but swiftly rebounded overnight, quoting around $4.64011 as of May 8, almost entirely recovering the loss.
In October 2025, LAB announced the completion of a $5 million funding round. Selini Capital, Re7 Capital, Cypher Capital, RedBeard VC, Lemniscap, TVM Ventures, OKX Ventures, Mirana, KuCoin Ventures, Gate Ventures, GSR, Animoca Brands, Presto Labs, and others participated in the financing. The funds will be used to accelerate infrastructure, product development, and global expansion.
The issue of price manipulation in the crypto industry is attracting broader regulatory scrutiny. In April 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice sued 10 executives of market makers such as Gotbit and Vortex, accusing them of wash trading with bots to artificially boost token prices. The founder of Gotbit has pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $23 million.
Whether the LAB incident will trigger similar enforcement actions depends on whether the ZachXBT bounty investigation can gather enough identity and contract evidence.
At the time of writing, the LAB team and vsadkovv have not yet issued a public response to the aforementioned allegations.
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