The LAB project continues to experience devastating pressure from internal players. After a series of large-scale sell-offs that already crashed the token by 85% in early July, the market saw a new wave of dumping. As a result, the LAB price fell another 35% in a short period of time.
On-chain data analysis shows that on July 13, an entity linked to the project transferred 17.9 million LAB tokens (approximately $7.2 million) from the Bitget exchange to a KuCoin deposit address. Almost immediately after that, part of the assets were directed to the Aster spot platform, where active selling began.
Details of the new sell-off
According to recorded data, about 5 million LAB from those received on KuCoin were withdrawn to a separate address. It was through Aster that the market sell-off was organized, crashing the price from $0.34 to $0.22. The remaining tokens are still in KuCoin wallets, creating additional risk for the market.
Notably, the entity changed its blockchain "fingerprints" in an attempt to conceal the funding source after the investigation began. This is a standard practice to complicate tracking the origin of funds, but it does not hide the scale of the disaster for LAB holders.
This is not the first such episode. Since mid-May, analysts have been recording systematic token dumps. In June, LAB's market cap reached $5.7 billion with a fully diluted valuation of $14 billion — a clear sign of manipulation.
Timeline of the crash
Recall that on July 8, the LAB price crashed 85% in a single day — from $14 to just under $2. Already on July 12, a new wave followed: the entity deposited 18.4 million LAB (about $18.3 million) onto Aster and began selling, leading to another 54% drop — from $1.2 to $0.55.
According to investigation data, this entity received over 196 million LAB from the project team back in April 2026. The tokens were transferred to Bitget deposit addresses, and as of the last recording, it still had 81.5 million LAB. All free token supply was controlled by insiders, which led to extremely sharp price manipulations on exchanges.
Expert comment: The LAB story is a classic example of a pump-and-dump involving insiders. Listings on major platforms and an artificially high market cap create an illusion of reliability, luring retail traders into a trap. As long as the token distribution structure remains opaque, any trades with LAB involve extreme risk. The market must demand clear lock-up and vesting mechanisms for team tokens from projects — otherwise, such stories will repeat.