ZachXBT
ZachXBT is an anonymous X (formerly Twitter) user and cryptocurrency trader known for exposing hacks, scams, rug pulls, and unethical practices in the crypto space. The investigator first joined Twitter in February 2015 and as of March 2024, has a follower count of 500k+. [1][2][3]
Overview
ZachXBT often digs up information about questionable events — such as alleged scams, crime, and the like. They act as a digital detective for the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector.[4]
ZachXBT's exposes, usually shared as threads, contain details about who the scammers are, with each accusation backed by evidence. He also exposes questionable influencer antics, all while staying anonymous. His goal is to protect the blockchain and crypto space from bad actors and dishonesty and provide a safe sphere where all stakeholders can engage. [3]
In June 2023, Jeffrey Huang (Machi Big Brother) sued ZachXBT for defamation. While tweeting about the lawsuit, ZachXBT said that it was baseless and an attempt to stifle free speech. He later went ahead to crowdfund to cover his legal fees. [7]
ZachXBT's Popular Exposes
Pixelmon
In February 2022, ZachXBT exposed the Pixelmon NFT project as a scam. The founder of the NFT, Syber introduced Pixelmon as a high-utility NFT collection tied to an upcoming game. The project developers built excitement by pledging fully interactive 3D character NFTs. This excitement saw Pixelmon generate over $70 million with 3 ETH per mint. The grand reveal happened shortly after, diverging significantly from the advertised content. [3]
The team apologized to collectors and pledged $2 million to redesign the Pixelmon NFTs. [3]
ZachXBT, in a Twitter thread, detailed how the Pixelmon NFT project collectors were rugged. He tracked the funds to a Multi-Signature (MultiSig) wallet. After the mint, hundreds of ETH were transferred to different addresses. Additionally, the project’s dev address allegedly spent 400 ETH on blue-chip NFTs like Azuki and Bored Ape Yacht Club as an investment for the project. [4]
Pixelmon claimed to use their team to develop the NFT game. However, ZachXBT showed how project devs bought digital artwork from the Unity platform. [3]
The NFT Machine Scam
Unveiled by ZachXBT in November 2022, this scam involved Tyler Gaye, the alleged person behind the NFT Machine scam who had raised $55,000 from investors to create an NFT marketplace. However, Gaye was accused of using the funds for his NFT indulgences, adding items from the famous MoonCats collection. [3][4]
ZachXBT, in his Telegram channel, Investigations by ZachXBT[2] revealed that X-user scaredofboobs is indeed Tyler Gaye, the alleged scammer. ZachXBT conducted a series of investigations to establish the connection between scaredofboobs and Tyler Gaye. This included pattern analysis, public or leaked information, tweeting habits, and transaction tracking. Scaredofboobs is an X user known for publishing open-source code related to Solana smart contract development. They are also the developer of Gamegear, a web-based platform that offers retro games such as Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Dig Dug, and others. [10]
ZachXBT alleged that Gaye didn’t repay the investors the $275K+ as ordered by the court and has continued to create new crypto projects. ZachXBT pointed to the retro gaming project ArcadeDAO as an example. [10]
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Phishing Scam
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) phishing scam is an NFT scam that saw some BAYC NFT owners lose their NFTs. ZachXBT revealed the phishing scam in August 2022 in a blog post dubbed Scammers in Paris[12]. Following ZachXBT’s provided scam trail, the French National Cyber Unit arrested five individuals connected to the phishing scam. [7][11]
According to the French Police, the five culprits had created a network to advertise a service that would create an animated model of any user’s BAYC NFT. The individuals operated out of BAYC’s official Discord channel which made the scam seem authentic. [11]
The BAYC NFT scam required interested BAYC NFT owners to click on the link to generate the animated version of their own NFT and approve a transaction on a website. However, instead of receiving animated apes, the users noticed the service stole their BAYC NFTs into the hands of the scammers. [4][11]
Dilly Dilly is one such user who fell for the phishing scam and had his BAYC #237 stolen in December 2021. The scammers sold the NFT on the same day for 47 ETH, which was roughly $178K back then. As detailed by ZachXBT, the scammers were able to steal more than $2.5 million.
He also traced the online movement of crypto funds, leading to the discovery and subsequent arrest of the scammers Camille and Mathys by the French authorities. [4][11]
"Update: Am very pleased to shared that both Mathys and Camille were prosecuted in France as of today." - ZachXBT posted on October 12, 2022[13]
ZachXBT was given a shoutout by the authorities in their report following the arrest. [13]
Rogue Society
Rogue Society is a robot-themed cool PFP NFT collection that dropped in September 2021 with a promising roadmap. Their mint successfully raised $5.5 million, which turned out to be a slow rug. Ultimately, the anonymous founder vanished with the money and the incomplete roadmap. [3][14]
In April 2022, ZachXBT exposed the founder of Rogue Society: Jahvin Bowman, aka @LecheTheMilky, on X. According to the detective, even the freelance artist who created the Rogue Society NFT artwork was scammed. 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. [5][6]
Solchicks
Solchicks Player vs. Player (PvP) game launched 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. [3][4][15]
ZachXBT reposted the documents from one of the SolChicks team members’ public accounts. There was evidence of buying fake Twitter followers, Discord bots, and fake Reddit reviews. [15]
ZachXBT vs. Lark Davis
In September 2022, ZachXBT alleged that popular crypto influencer Lark Davis made over $1 million while promoting low-cap crypto projects and dumping them on his followers. In a 17-part Twitter thread, Zach accused Davis of promoting “low cap projects to his audience just to dump on them shortly after”, without disclosing that he was allegedly paid to promote them. Zach claimed that Davis made over $1.2 million through this pattern of behavior. [23]
Zach provided eight examples of Davis' crypto wallet receiving tokens from new crypto projects, with Davis subsequently tweeting or posting a video about them and then selling the tokens shortly after. The largest gain to Davis came from allegedly receiving 120,000 SHOPX tokens, with Davis tweeting about the project while simultaneously selling the tokens, resulting in a gain of $435,000. [23]
The following day, on September 30th, 2022, Davis denied the allegations and claimed he received nothing from the projects and that the amounts he sold weren’t enough to "dump the price." He also stated that his investments in projects are “always disclosed” on his YouTube channel. Davis added that he was following an investing strategy he teaches, selling the tokens upon launch, which he claims is a common investing practice for token sales. [24]
ZachXBT vs. Jeffrey Huang
Jeffrey 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 successful. In June 2022, ZachXBT accused Jeffrey of engagements that resulted in “sketchy projects with shadowy team members, questionable ethics, and rote pump and dump practices.” [8]
In a well-detailed exposé published on Medium[8], Zach XBT walked readers through Huang’s sketchy crypto projects dating back to 2017. Out of all the allegations made by ZachXBT, Formosa Financial, a blockchain treasury management platform, was the most noteworthy. Per his investigation, there were two withdrawals of 11,000 ETH each (~$17+ million) 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. [8]
On June 16, 2023, Huang sued ZachXBT and the detective created a donation address to raise funds to cover the legal costs. He received over $1 million 48 hours after appealing for donations. Shortly after, on August 15, 2023, both ZachXBT and Huang, in separate tweets, announced that the lawsuit had been dropped. ZachXBT, on his part, tweeted that while he believed the case shouldn’t have gone down the legal route, he had made amendments to the article to include Huang’s feedback. [17]
On the other hand, Huang commended ZachXBT’s work via a tweet where he noted that the detective had been of “great service to the crypto community and pursuing legal action against him was a last resort but not the right path.” Following the withdrawal of the case, ZachXBT said he was working on returning any unused funds raised to cater to the legal costs. [17]
ZachXBT vs. BitBoy Crypto
Ben Armstrong, aka BitBoy Crypto, is among the biggest influencers exposed by ZachXBT. According to the detective, this crypto advisor made a fortune by promoting many NFT project scams. Depending on the promotion method, he would receive between $2,500 – $40,000 per ad. Before being exposed by ZachXBT, BitBoy was 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. [9][16]
On October 2023, ZachXBT posted another allegation against BitBoy crypto about how the influencer had been selling an indicator and access to a paid group called ‘High IQ’ for $3,999. The group supposedly promised its members a top-performing indicator and a “verified strategy.” In the X post, ZachXBT pointed out that if Ben’s offering were genuinely profitable, Bitboy wouldn’t need to request donations. Instead, he could use the supposed indicator to generate profits for himself. [18]
ZachXBT vs. Logan Paul
In May 2022, ZachXBT exposed Logan Paul who is described by his X profile as an artist, boxer, entrepreneur, wrestler, and podcast host. In the exposé, ZachXBT accused Paul of endorsing various pump-and-dump NFT projects. According to them, Paul promoted fishy projects or tokens by engaging in scam practices just days before the projects vanished with investor money. [19][20]
In the thread, the detective revealed some of the possible scams Logan Paul has allegedly been involved in based on his transaction records. They did this using Paul’s public address, 0xff0 which mapped out how funds were moved in and out from several other addresses. For example, 0xb74 transferred several NFTs, including 3 CryptoPunks, to the main public address. [19]
ZachXBT pointed out his potential pump-and-dump schemes on Elongate. On May 10, 2021, a video was leaked where Logan was speaking about the Elongate token. Transaction details show that he cashed in $112k from this pump and dump alone. [19]
Logan was also alleged as a part of the controversial Ethereum Max promotion, where celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather were involved. The token backed Logan’s fight with Floyd and Logan received free tokens, which were later sold for $71.8k. Another pump-and-dump scheme Logan got involved in was the failed DinkDoink crypto project. He hyped the coin with videos and tweets, but it turned out that the coin was his creation. [19][20]
DeGods NFT Funds Recovery
In May 2023, ZachXBT received a message from a scam victim asking for their help in recovering his digital art shortly after realizing his wallet had been drained from visiting a phishing site. [22]
On February 24, 2024, ZachXBT reported that he had been able to recover the victim's funds.
"In May 2023 the rank 1 DeGods NFT was stolen from a victim after visiting a phishing site and sold for $177K (99 ETH). I am pleased to share I was able to help recover a decent chunk of the stolen funds which have now been returned back to the victim. While recovery can be a lengthy process it does happen and I am always happy to share these success stories." - ZachXBT tweeted[21]
ZachXBT also disclosed plans to conclude pro bono blockchain investigation work shortly. This was revealed after receiving replies from X users showing frustration because ZachXBT did not assist in recovering their stolen crypto as well, despite reiterating that the services were free of charge.
“This is exactly why I am stopping all public goods work soon,” - he stated. [22]