Bitget Faces Fresh Scrutiny After $480M LAB Token Withdrawals

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is again drawing public criticism after on-chain tracker Lookonchain reported that ten newly created wallets pulled 100 million LAB tokens off the platform inside a 12-hour window. The withdrawals were valued at roughly $480.33 million.

Per Lookonchain, the moved tokens represented 32.26% of LAB's circulating supply. On-chain investigator ZachXBT cited the data as fresh support for his standing allegation that LAB trading on Bitget has shown signs of coordinated market manipulation. The Bitget token (BGB) was changing hands at $2.11 at press time.

ZachXBT escalated the dispute beyond the LAB token itself in a post on X. He named Bitget executive Shawn Liu and chief executive Gracy Chen, writing that the exchange has allowed alleged schemes "to operate behind the scenes" and that he intended to "increase public attacks against Bitget." The exchange has not issued a public response to the latest claims.

The current criticism layers on top of an earlier, unresolved matter involving the token RAVE. In April, Chen publicly acknowledged ZachXBT's RAVE allegations and said an investigation had begun. ZachXBT said the community has received no further update on that probe.

Wallet-cluster analysis cited by ZachXBT came from researcher SpecterAnalyst. The thread alleged that a wallet linked to the LAB team deposited 40 million LAB, worth about $13.6 million at the time, to Bitget on April 8. SpecterAnalyst said a further 96 million LAB, worth roughly $63 million, was deposited to Bitget about a week before the token began rising on May 1.

The analysis also flagged gas-fee patterns and on-chain buying activity tied to wallets it described as team-controlled. SpecterAnalyst said additional deposits were routed to Gate as well as Bitget. The claims are based on wallet clustering and transaction interpretation. They have not been confirmed by any exchange or regulator.

ZachXBT extended his criticism to centralized-exchange incentives broadly. He named perpetual markets at Binance, OKX and Bybit as "a potential source" of related flows and questioned whether fee revenue justified what he characterized as retail losses. The investigator has posted a $10,000 reward for evidence on LAB market manipulation, including market-maker contracts, chat logs and identity details tied to the LAB founder identified as Vova Sadkov.

What it means: The dispute keeps a spotlight on listing standards and post-listing surveillance at major centralized exchanges, with one of the industry's most-followed on-chain investigators now treating Bitget as a recurring target. Until exchanges publish formal findings on RAVE, LAB or similar tokens, market participants are left weighing third-party wallet analysis against silence from the venues themselves.