Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT has accused Vova Sadkov, the founder of an AI trading terminal project called LAB, of market manipulation and is offering a $10,000 bounty for information related to the alleged scam.
According to ZachXBT and other sleuths, the LAB team allegedly coordinated massive deposits of LAB tokens, worth tens of millions of dollars, to exchanges like Bitget, Bybit, and Binance before a huge price pump in early May.
"$10K bounty is now live on @vsadkovv passport/ID or insider details of the market maker (contracts, chat logs, etc) used for LAB on Bitget spot, Bybit perps Binance perps, or OKX perps," ZachXBT posted to X on Thursday. "These grifters are further hurting the industry reputation and it must not go unpunished. War time mode."
Specter, another onchain analyst, noted that some of these deposits happened weeks in advance, and pointed to gas fees linking wallets allegedly controlled by the LAB team or Sadkov. Some of these wallets were also connected to tokens like SkyAI, which ZachXBT has also alleged shows signs of market manipulation.
ZachXBT posted several times about LAB and Sadkov on Thursday, clarifying that he had DM’d the team earlier with no reply and decided to escalate. He also publicly messaged Gracy Chen, the CEO of Bitget that he accuses of benefiting from the fees driven by manipulated tokens.
"CEXs need to freeze MM profits / distribute to users (victims) when these games happen," ZachXBT said. "Should not rely on people calling it out."
The Block has reached out to Sadkov for comment. It has also contacted Gracy Chen and Bitget.
Indeed, ZachXBT has been calling out more and more relatively small projects for alleged manipulation. Last month, he posted a summary of the RAVE token’s 95% drawdown and pointed to other projects with "highly questionable price action," like SIREN, MYX, COAI, M, PIPPIN, and RIVER, he pointed to at the time.
"Exchanges need faster intervention on manipulation. Detection at scale isn't easy, but each day of delay means retail traders absorb losses while platforms collect fees on the volume. The outcome is the same regardless of intent," he said in April.