LAB token plunges 77% on MEXC, $6B wiped

LAB token collapsed 77% on MEXC on June 2, dropping from an all-time high of $27.96 to roughly $6 in about two hours. On-chain records show automated infrastructure executed thousands of trades during the window, and circulating market value fell by roughly $6 billion.

On-chain trackers identified the most active participants during the crash as routers, proxy contracts and settlement systems rather than individual wallet holders. A proxy address labeled 0x3bc3…2717 carried out 4,585 trades in under two hours, with on-chain flows showing roughly $458,200 in sales and $322,400 in buys from that address. The largest single sell recovered in the collapse window was about $18,600; subsequent large prints were $10,100, $9,100, $8,600 and $8,100.

The price run began May 29 and accelerated after a June 1 buyback announcement and changes to vesting and market-making activity. LAB rose more than 570% to the June 2 peak. Using a circulating supply of about 312 million tokens, market capitalization fell from around $8.7 billion at the peak to about $2 billion at the low. On a fully diluted basis, assuming a 1 billion token cap, valuation moved from about $28 billion to under $7 billion. Some on-chain trackers estimate the total nominal wipe closer to $9 billion when including other measures.

Derivatives trading added pressure before and during the reversal. The rally to $16.24 on June 1 produced more than $19 million in liquidations, with about $16.5 million on short positions. The June 2 reversal triggered additional millions in liquidation volume. Realized losses are hard to determine because roughly 282 million LAB remain locked under cliff and vesting schedules and were not freely tradable during the rally.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT has alleged that insiders control the bulk of available float through opaque over-the-counter deals, private-sale allocations and concentrated team holdings, and has claimed unilateral changes to vesting that affected trading. He has offered a $10,000 bounty for chat records, contracts or market-maker documents tied to LAB founder Vova Sadkov.

Traders and analysts noted earlier volatility in LAB’s price this year. In early May the token fell about 65% within hours from a $3.83 peak. On-chain movement of 100 million LAB out of a major exchange into multiple newly created wallets was flagged by investigators as a transfer of interest for further scrutiny.

Technical data on the hourly LAB/USDT chart on MEXC shows the rally beginning late May, reaching the $27.96 high on June 2, then reversing 77% in a single two-hour leg. Price later reclaimed the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement near $18.87 and traded between that level and the 0.618 retracement around $13.25 in subsequent hours. At the time of reporting, LAB had moved back toward the low-$18 area and was testing resistance near $18.50.

Community reactions on social channels described the collapse as unusual because the largest recovered on-chain sells were small compared with the dollar-scale market-cap wipe. A user posted: “None of these look like normal holders. These are infrastructure addresses. Routers. Settlers. Proxy contracts. Automated systems.” Explanations offered by participants included coordinated market-maker liquidity withdrawals, cascading derivatives liquidations and aggressive arbitrage or routing loops consuming thin order books.

Market participants are monitoring scheduled token unlock windows in July and August that would release previously restricted allocations into circulation. Community members have requested clearer disclosures about private allocations, OTC arrangements and market-making contracts from project backers and exchanges.