At the time of writing, ZachXBT’s Twitter boasts over 422,000 followers. His impressive list of supporters features huge names in the Web3 industry, such as Beeple, Tron’s CEO Justin Sun, and Binance’s CEO Cangpeng Zhao.
However, the everyday crypto and NFT traders are the most grateful for ZachXBT’s efforts to keep them safe. But who is this Batman of the Web3 era? Let’s find out:
ZachXBT is the self-proclaimed crypto sleuth of the Web3 space.
ZachXBT is an anonymous Twitter user and crypto trader renowned for exposing NFT projects, and influencer rug pulls. This investigator first joined Twitter in 2015. However, their pro-bono Web3 detective career started in May 2021 when they spotted the first NFT scams.
Since then, ZachXBT has used his impressive chain analysis experience to dive deep into every project or person, raising eyebrows.
Nobody knows who ZachXBT is right now, but there are a few clues. In June 2023, the anonymous detective posted on Twitter a part of the lawsuit paperwork that Jeffery ‘Machi’ Huang filed against him (more on that below).
In that photo, we can see that his last name is Zachary and that the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin, issued the document. This is, in fact, the most information ZachXBT has ever revealed about their true identity.
While we don’t know who’s the person behind the screen, their actions might speak more than an ID card. The following Twitter exposes are the perfect examples!
ZachXBT had been keeping an eye on Pixelmon’s NFT release before Kevin went viral.
In essence, ZachXBT uses Twitter to expose NFT scams. They include details about the scammers and evidence for each accusation. Here are a few top examples:
This information generated so much hype that Pixelmon’s mint raised over $70m with 3 ETH per mint! Then the grand reveal happened, and it looked like this:
Credits: Twitter
Moreover, Pixelmon claimed to use their own team to develop the NFT game. However, in February 2022, ZachXBT posted multiple pieces of evidence of how project devs were, in fact, buying digital artwork from the Unity platform.
Rogue Society is another popular NFT project exposed by ZachXBT.
After this information was revealed, Rogue Society launched an alleged $5k song competition on their Discord. However, ZachXBT spotted one of the founding team members also joined the contest and won the staged contest.
ZachXBT exposed SolChicks for using fake bots, fake reviews, and other malicious strategies.
This web3 PvP game launched back in 2022 on the Solana blockchain with an NFT collection of breedable ‘SolChicks.’ The project was advertised as one of the top experiences on Solana – but that image quickly vanished after the team’s documents were leaked on social media.
These are just some of the projects ZachXBT has exposed in recent years. The list also includes projects like SolanaValley, MissUniverseNFT, Rich Bulls Club, and MoonRabbit.
Besides NFT projects, ZachXBT has also exposed many Venture Capitals (VCs) and NFT influencers. For example, the top companies are MoonRock Capital, DarkPool Ventures, and BlueZilla. If those names ring a bell, let’s check out the most popular influencers ZachXBT investigated:
ZachXBT exposed Laurent Correia for scamming users with his project, Billionaire Dogs Club.
Let’s travel back in time to December 2021, when Billionaire Dogs Club launched. This collection of 6,500 NFTs dropped with a 0.2 ETH price per piece. The project’s marketing involved a luxury lifestyle, wealth, cars, and massive giveaways.
When the minting didn’t go as planned, the founders reduced their NFT supply to 2,000 assets. By the following week, the project’s Discord and website disappeared.
Tai Lopez, a popular crypto investor and ‘grifter,’ was scamming users, according to ZachXBT.
Logan Paul is among the most popular public figures exposed by ZachXBT.
ZachXBT’s research revealed how Logan Paul used various addresses to redirect funds to or from his public address. Some of the scam projects he supported are DinkDoink, Elongate, or $F**KELON.
ZachXBT exposed BitBoy Crypto for promoting project scams for several years.
Before being exposed by ZachXBT, BitBoy was very open about ‘rigorously vetting all paid promotions.’ However, data collected by ZachXBT proved otherwise. In January 2022, they tweeted evidence of seven NFT projects or token scams that ran away with the profits – all promoted by BitBoy. In fact, the community even warned the influencer about some of those projects being fake, including $MYX Network.
After the projects rugged, BitBoy also deleted his ads – but the NFT community can’t forget, and ZachXBT shined the spotlight on each piece of evidence.
These are just a few of the top influencers ZachXBT exposed in recent years. The long list of scammers also includes Artchick, Jay Alvarrez, 888, 6ix9ine, to name a few.
Some blocked him, some confronted him via Twitter, but one of the exposed figures took the problem to court. Here’s what you should know:
On June 16th, Machi Big Brother filed a lawsuit against ZachXBT for his accusations.
Jeff Huang, known as Machi Big Brother, is a Taiwan-based entrepreneur and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT whale. An ex-member of the L.A. Boyz band, he founded the Asian hip-hop label MACHI Entertainment in the 2000s, which became very successful.
In fact, ZachXBT’s evidence on Machi Big Brother’s malicious NFT practices is just as impressive as his resume. Telegram posts, Medium articles, and a myriad of sketchy transactions all point out to what ZachXBT calls ‘sketchy projects with shadowy team members, questionable ethics, and rote pump and dump practices.’
Out of all the accusations, the blockchain treasury management platform Formosa Financial is the most notable. In short, ZachXBT found two withdrawals of 11,000 ETH each from the project’s treasury wallet. Cofounder George Hsieh made these withdrawals without other investors knowing. By following transactions, the detective found that Machi Big Brother was involved in this shady transfer.
Machi replied to these accusations, saying that it’s misinformation and that ‘if he weren’t anon, I’d sue him for defamation.’
This unfortunate event showed how much the crypto and NFT communities support ZachXBT. For example, de donors list includes Coinbase, Uniswap, Binance, Bybit, and OKX, to name a few.
In 2022, Beeple launched an artwork to honor ZachXBT’s journey in the NFT space.
From an anonymous collector who got scammed years ago to keeping the NFT community safe, ZachXBT is a key part of today’s Web3 space. Their meticulosity helped them expose top influencers and NFT projects throughout the years and prevent other victims.
Although nobody can predict the outcome of ZachXBT’s lawsuit, one thing is certain: he is a beloved crypto sleuth.
