Lab Network is a multi-chain trading terminal operating across Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain, charging users a flat fee of 0.5% per trade.

The pseudonymous on-chain analyst publicly named Vova Sadkov, who operates under the handle @vsadkovv, as the individual behind the alleged scheme. The accusation follows a dramatic price cycle in which the LAB token surged roughly 3,700% in a single month, reaching an all-time high of $3.64 on May 2, 2026, before collapsing 70% within 24 hours to $1.08 on May 3. Trading volume peaked at $253 million during the rally and swelled to $410 million on the crash day, dominated by sell-side pressure. ZachXBT stated he attempted to contact Sadkov directly before going public and received no response.

What ZachXBT Found On-Chain

The core of ZachXBT's case rests on wallet activity tied to the LAB team. One wallet, identified by its address prefix 0xe037, deposited 40 million LAB tokens worth approximately $13.6 million to the exchange Bitget on April 8. In the days leading up to a May 1 price announcement, a further 96 million tokens worth roughly $63 million were transferred to Bitget. The project's mobile app, separately cited as the narrative catalyst for the rally, launched around May 3, 2026. ZachXBT and corroborating analysts allege that between 95% and 99% of the total token supply is controlled by team members and insiders, despite only about 210 million of the 1 billion total tokens being in public circulation. Approximately 282 million additional tokens are separately locked, a supply overhang with direct implications for ongoing dump risk.

Bitget's total LAB holdings are estimated at around $1.2 billion, with $89 million of the $163 million in total open interest concentrated on Binance's perpetuals market. Following the collapse, 74% of open interest shifted to short positions, indicating traders have moved heavily against the token.

ZachXBT placed a $10,000 bounty on any insider documentation from LAB's market-making operations across Bitget spot, Bybit perpetuals, Binance perpetuals, and OKX perpetuals, as well as passport or government identification for Sadkov. "These grifters are further hurting the industry reputation and it must not go unpunished," he wrote publicly. He added: "I do not recommend trading these type of tokens at all."

Reporting by Cryip.co connected the same 0xe037 wallet to a prior token, SkyAI, which surged more than 1,000% before collapsing in a similar pattern. Crypto analyst Specter was quoted in that reporting, offering an independent assessment that echoed ZachXBT's findings. "$LAB becoming the latest pump-and-dump token while Bitget continues playing the usual CEX role," Specter wrote. As of publication, neither Sadkov nor the LAB project had issued any public rebuttal to the manipulation allegations. The LAB team had previously cited the project's fundamentals, noting over $800 million in lifetime platform volume, but made no direct response to the on-chain evidence. Bitget, Binance, Bybit, and OKX had likewise issued no public statements specifically regarding LAB as of publication.

A Recognizable Playbook

The sequence of events fits a pattern ZachXBT has flagged across multiple tokens in 2026. A project builds credibility through institutional fundraising (LAB raised $1.5 million in 10 minutes in an early round), then accumulates a concentrated supply. Team wallets move large token volumes to centralized exchanges just ahead of a narrative event such as a product launch. Retail traders chase the price spike, and insiders exit into that demand. Cascading liquidations in leveraged derivatives markets, some at 40x, amplify the downside when selling begins. ZachXBT has described similar supply-concentration and exit-liquidity setups in his investigation into RAVE and a broader list of tokens including SIREN, MYX, COAI, and RIVER throughout this year. In a separate February 2026 case, ZachXBT also flagged Axiom, though that investigation centered on an employee who allegedly front-ran user trades using internal data tools over more than ten months, pocketing over $400,000. That case involved a materially different mechanism from the supply-concentration scheme described here, but it similarly involved insiders exploiting retail participants on a centralized platform.

Why Retail Traders in South Asia and Africa Face Outsized Risk

The exchanges at the center of this case, Bitget, Bybit, and Binance, have deep user bases in Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. Bitget's own 2026 adoption data names Nigeria, China, and India as its top three growth markets. Nigeria ranked second on the 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index, with 84% of surveyed crypto holders planning to increase their investments. Pakistan's Binance peer-to-peer remittance activity grew 18.7% year over year. In India, exchanges WazirX and CoinDCX together count approximately 60 million registered users, underscoring the scale of retail exposure across the subcontinent. In these markets, crypto participation is predominantly retail and mobile-first. Leveraged trading products are accessible with minimal onboarding requirements, and most participants have no access to the kind of on-chain forensics tools ZachXBT uses.

AI trading terminal narratives carry particular appeal in tech-savvy emerging markets, making projects like LAB effective vehicles for drawing in new participants who then become exit liquidity for insiders. Across sub-Saharan Africa, similarly nascent regulatory environments leave retail traders broadly exposed to manipulation on global platforms. South Africa offers a concrete example: the country is currently drafting crypto regulations that would bring digital assets under formal exchange controls, but critics argue the framework would restrict access rather than meaningfully protect retail traders from the kind of scheme alleged here.

What Comes Next

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen previously acknowledged an investigation into RAVE, a token ZachXBT flagged in April under similar circumstances. Weeks later, no substantive update has been published. The LAB case is ZachXBT's third major public investigation of 2026, following the Axiom front-running case in February and the RAVE pump-and-dump allegation in April. The escalating frequency of these cases points to a systemic pattern rather than a series of isolated incidents, and Bitget has now opened at least one investigation without a published resolution. Whether exchanges take more decisive action in the LAB case remains to be seen. With blockchain forensics becoming faster and more publicly impactful, project teams operating with concentrated token supplies and opaque market-maker arrangements face growing scrutiny. For now, ZachXBT's bounty is live and the on-chain record is public.