LAB Founder Accused of CEX Manipulation: ZachXBT Exposes Harm to Retail Investors

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ZachXBT accuses LAB founder of CEX manipulation that “harms retail investors”

A researcher known as ZachXBT has publicly accused the founder of LAB of manipulating trades on cryptocurrency exchanges, claiming this practice hurts everyday investors. This accusation follows ZachXBT’s attempt to privately warn the founder, which was reportedly disregarded.

Summary

  • On-chain investigator ZachXBT has accused the founder of LAB of participating in centralized exchange (CEX) market manipulation that he says hurts retail traders.
  • ZachXBT said he attempted to contact the founder privately, but his message was read and ignored, calling the conduct a further blow to the industry’s already fragile credibility.
  • The allegation lands amid a broader wave of on‑chain investigations into insider trading, wash trading, and market‑making schemes around thinly traded tokens.

In a recent post on X, ZachXBT accused the founder of LAB of both sharing irrelevant philosophical content and secretly manipulating markets on centralized exchanges, which he claims harms everyday investors. ZachXBT stated he attempted to contact the founder directly but received no response. He believes this behavior has severely damaged what little trust remains in the industry, as detailed in his online thread.

Although ZachXBT didn’t provide all the transaction details in their initial post, the claim follows reports from other analysts who noticed unusual trading activity involving LAB. A recent report from MEXC highlighted a wallet believed to be connected to someone with inside information or a market maker, which made roughly $1.13 million when LAB’s price increased tenfold in a month. The timing of their purchases before the price jump and subsequent sales have raised concerns about fair trading practices in the crypto market.

The recent accusation against LAB follows a similar pattern seen in ZachXBT’s previous investigations. Last month, he investigated RaveDAO, claiming they knew about manipulation of their RAVE token, which experienced a massive 11,000% price surge and subsequent crash. ZachXBT found transfers from the token’s distribution wallet to Bitget, coinciding with a 40% drop in price that day. While RaveDAO denied any team involvement, ZachXBT believes they at least know who was responsible, based on how the tokens were distributed and where the money came from, as reported on Binance Square.

Traders are becoming more cautious about new listings on major cryptocurrency exchanges due to growing concerns about fraudulent activity. Recent investigations, like one by ZachXBT and discussed on Reddit, revealed that a significant portion – 57 to 60% – of trading volume on the Tokenlon decentralized exchange between 2022 and 2023 was linked to wallets associated with scams. These funds eventually ended up on centralized exchanges, leading to worries that some parts of the exchange system are connected to dishonest practices and artificially inflated trading numbers.

When a cryptocurrency project faces negative news or a hit to its reputation, token prices often become more unstable and harder to trade. Some investors sell quickly, while others try to profit from the situation or anticipate future price movements. Crypto.news has reported on this pattern before, including instances of a DeFi token’s price crashing after accusations of manipulation, capital moving to decentralized platforms due to problems with centralized exchange listings, and how artificial trading activity on centralized exchanges can make it difficult to determine a token’s true price.

If the founder of LAB doesn’t respond to the accusations with clear evidence to disprove them, the company’s value will likely decrease, its stock will probably continue to fall on exchanges where it’s traded, and overall confidence in smaller company listings will suffer – which could negatively impact the entire market.

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2026-05-07 16:36