The LAB project continues to collapse. After a series of massive sell-offs recorded in recent weeks, the LAB token price dropped another 35% on July 14. Everything indicates that insiders controlling the issuance continue to dump assets onto the market, facing no resistance from exchanges.
According to on-chain monitoring data, on July 13, an entity linked to the project withdrew 17.9 million LAB (approximately $7.2 million) from the Bitget exchange to a KuCoin deposit address. Within minutes, part of these coins were moved to a separate wallet, followed by active selling through the Aster spot platform.
According to analysts, it was this realization that triggered the latest drop: the token crashed from $0.34 to $0.22. The remaining funds are still held in KuCoin wallets, creating a risk of further downward pressure on the price.
The manipulation scheme is becoming obvious
Notably, the entity changed its "fingerprints"—the routes of fund movements—to conceal the source of financing after the investigation began. This complicates tracking the origin of digital assets but does not change the essence: we are dealing with a classic "pump and dump" scheme executed by insiders.
Let me remind you that this is not the first episode. As early as mid-May, expert ZachXBT warned about manipulations with LAB on centralized exchanges. On June 1, he noted that the token's market capitalization reached $5.7 billion with a fully diluted valuation of $14 billion—a clear sign of artificial price inflation. On July 8, a new blow followed: the price fell 85% in a day—from $14 to just under $2. And on July 12, another wave was recorded: within 48 hours, 18.4 million LAB (about $18.3 million) were deposited onto the Aster platform, leading to another 54% drop—from $1.2 to $0.55.
The overall conclusion is discouraging. Since April 2026, the project team has transferred over 196 million LAB to insiders. At the peak, they controlled virtually the entire free supply of the token, allowing them to manipulate the price unchecked. As of now, the entity still holds 81.5 million LAB, so market pressure may continue.
My expert assessment: The LAB story is a classic example of how listing on major exchanges and high market capitalization create an illusion of reliability, behind which lies complete insider control over issuance. Retail traders should be extremely cautious with such assets, especially if their price is sustained solely by artificial demand. Until exchanges start blocking suspicious wallets, such schemes will continue to recur.