Key Takeaways:
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has accused Bitget founder Shawn Liu of being the true operator behind the exchange, alleging he enables scam activity while CEO Gracy Chen acts as the public face. The allegations follow a 100 million LAB token withdrawal from Bitget, valued at over $480 million.
"Shawn Liu is the Bitget big boss who allows these scams to operate behind the scenes while Gracy Chen is only the face of it," ZachXBT posted on X, a social media platform. "The Chinese CEX cartel has gone unchallenged for years and doesn’t care as long as they benefit from the activity."
The accusations follow a period of intense scrutiny on the LAB token. On-chain data showed wallets linked to the LAB team moved approximately 96 million LAB tokens (worth $63 million at the time) to Bitget before a 350% price surge in early May. More recently, analytics firm Lookonchain flagged 10 new wallets withdrawing 100 million LAB tokens from Bitget, mirroring the pattern seen before the token’s previous pump and subsequent 84% crash.
By naming Liu directly, ZachXBT shifts the focus from individual token manipulations to the accountability of exchange leadership. The investigator, known for exposing major crypto fraud schemes, has offered a $10,000 bounty for information proving market manipulation of the LAB token on Bitget and other exchanges, suggesting the issue is widespread.
ZachXBT’s use of the term “Chinese CEX cartel” has drawn some criticism for being racist, a claim he has refuted. The investigator argues the term refers to a group of Asian centralized exchanges that he alleges knowingly profit from inflated trading volumes on manipulated tokens while facing little regulatory accountability. The core of the allegation is that these exchanges benefit from the trading fees generated by pump-and-dump schemes.
The LAB token itself exhibits several red flags for investors. According to CoinMarketCap data, the token has a liquidity-to-market-cap ratio of just 0.35%, meaning a token with a supposed $1.57 billion market cap has only about $4.75 million in on-chain liquidity. This structure makes the price highly susceptible to manipulation by large holders.
The allegations add to a series of challenges for Bitget. The exchange previously reported a loss of around $100 million in April from a separate market manipulation exploit involving the VOXEL token. Despite ZachXBT’s public calls for Bitget to investigate and freeze profits from the RAVE token manipulation in April, the exchange has not provided any public updates. Neither Bitget, Shawn Liu, nor Gracy Chen have responded to the latest allegations regarding the LAB token.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
