TL;DR:
- ZachXBT identified Shawn Liu as the real operator of Bitget, while describing CEO Gracy Chen as merely “the face” of the exchange.
- The investigator warned of an imminent escalation against the “Chinese centralized exchange cartel” and offered $10,000 for evidence of LAB token manipulation.
- Neither Bitget nor Shawn Liu have publicly responded to the accusations so far.
ZachXBT, the onchain analysis investigator, doubled down on his offensive against exchange Bitget by publicly identifying its founder, Shawn Liu, as the platform’s true operator. According to the investigator, Liu enables the execution of scam and market manipulation operations from behind the scenes, while CEO Gracy Chen serves solely as a public figurehead.
“Shawn Liu is the big boss of Bitget, who allows these scams to operate behind the scenes while Gracy Chen is just the face of all this,” ZachXBT wrote. He also issued a direct warning: the so-called “Chinese CEX cartel” has operated unchallenged for years, benefiting from irregular activity without any authority having taken decisive action.
A Cartel Nobody Challenges
The expression “Chinese CEX cartel” refers to a group of centralized exchanges of Asian origin that, according to ZachXBT, knowingly benefit from inflated trading volumes through internally coordinated tokens. The absence of a regulatory authority with clear jurisdiction over these actors has allowed the pattern to repeat itself without consequences.
The investigator also directed a public message to Gracy Chen on the social network X, demanding that exchanges freeze market makers’ profits and redistribute them to affected users when manipulation is detected. The post received no response.
ZachXBT Seeks Evidence of LAB Token Manipulation
The most recent case that prompted these statements involves the LAB token, whose price surged more than 350% over a 72-hour period in early May. Onchain data revealed that wallets linked to the LAB team transferred approximately 96 million tokens—valued at around $63 million—to Bitget before the price spike, a move consistent with positioning ahead of a coordinated pump.
ZachXBT identified Vova Sadkov, also known as vsadkovv, as the architect of the scheme, and offered a $10,000 bounty to anyone who provides definitive evidence of LAB market manipulation.
