LAB tumbled 21% in the 24 hours to August 14, 2026, sliding to roughly $0.08 as selling pressure on the token surged 278% following the opening of a long-awaited claims window for early presale investors. The token is now down 99.67% from its all-time high, with liquidation orders clustering between $0.0828 and $0.0866 as the price broke below its previous $0.10 support level.
The catalyst was the LAB team’s decision to open an airdrop claim window on August 14, giving early presale backers their first opportunity to sell. On-chain trackers recorded roughly 524,000 LAB tokens sold on MEXC alone as the claims went live, while a Capital Movement Indicator tracked by market analysts fell to -0.25, a reading consistent with sustained capital flight rather than a single panic sale.
The scale of the reversal in investor sentiment is stark. Unrealized profits held by early LAB investors collapsed from $977.35 million on July 4 to just $6 million by August 14 — a $971.35 million swing in 41 days. Even so, the team’s vesting schedule means no single investor will receive their full presale allocation before 2027, with between 500,000 and 2.25 million LAB tokens distributed through the current claims event.
A Pattern of Repeated Crashes
This is not LAB’s first collapse. The token plunged 70% within 24 hours on May 3 after a 364% rally had carried it from under $0.70 to a peak of $3.64, then crashed again on June 2, sliding 77% in two hours from a record $27.96 on MEXC to around $6 and erasing nearly $6 billion in market value. August’s decline follows the same script: a run-up in optimism ahead of a scheduled unlock, followed by a rush for the exits once tokens become liquid.
Related: $1,000 in XRP at the Start of 2026 Is Worth $543 Today
Insider Concentration Adds to the Pressure
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT alleged in May that insiders controlled more than 95% of LAB’s circulating supply, describing hidden private loans issued from the project’s BVI-registered entity and discounted token deals offered to key opinion leaders in exchange for promotional posts. Analytics firm BubbleMaps separately warned ahead of the token unlock that a collapse in liquidity would be severe, given how concentrated ownership sits in a small number of wallets. The August 13-14 unlock alone freed close to 282 million LAB tokens from lockup, a volume market makers were unable to absorb without the price giving way.
LAB’s slide also came alongside broader altcoin weakness — LayerZero and Aptos both traded lower over the same period — and a 1.1% pullback across the wider crypto market, which left the token with little buying support to lean on. Tokenomics data tracked by Tokenomist shows LAB’s vesting schedule stretching well into 2027, meaning further unlock-driven selling waves remain a live risk for the token even after this week’s drop.
For now, traders are watching whether the current support near $0.08 holds or whether the next tranche of claimable tokens triggers a repeat of the pattern that has now played out three times in four months.
