Once deceived, a lifetime of pursuit.
Author: StarPlatinum
Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow
He was scammed when he bought cryptocurrency in 2017, losing over $15,000. To understand what happened, he began studying blockchain explorers. Today, he has become one of the most formidable investigators in the crypto space.
Who exactly is ZachXBT?
Before becoming a blockchain detective, ZachXBT was just an ordinary retail investor. He trusted projects and invested heavily in NFT collections. Then, the scams came one after another. Later, he fell victim to a hacking incident. In 2018, he lost over $15,000 worth of ETH. So, he opened Etherscan and began mining.
Original video link: Click here
He learned on his own. He tracked wallets through mixers, joined the open-source intelligence (OSINT) community, and drew scam flowcharts on paper. He had never studied finance and had never worked in the tech industry. With only public tools and a lot of time, he delved deeper step by step. By May 2021, he was ready to take action.
Original video link: Click here
His first case exposed the suspicious financing of "Impact Theory." Then, the Rogue Society incident erupted: 15,777 NFTs were minted. The developers vanished, and Zach tracked the flow of funds. He traced wallets and published Discord receipts. In the end, the founder had to show up. And this was just the beginning of his story.
He exposed the $70 million Pixelmon disaster. He revealed how the team used minting funds to purchase Bored Apes. Subsequently, he dismantled a phishing gang that stole $2.5 million worth of BAYC NFTs. Zach identified the scammers through wallet tracking. In the end, five suspects were arrested in France, and the police publicly thanked him for his contributions.
In 2022, ZachXBT faced his biggest case. He published a ten-part report exposing the insider story of Machi "Big Brother." He linked 21 wallets to $37 million in missing funds. Subsequently, Machi sued him for defamation. The crypto community quickly rallied, raising $1 million for Zach's legal defense. Zach did not back down. But in the end, Machi dropped the lawsuit.
ZachXBT continued to investigate deeply. He tracked the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group, the mastermind behind the Ronin and Harmony bridge vulnerabilities. He mapped the flow of funds, revealing how $200 million moved through Tornado, ChipMixer, and Asian exchanges. He then shared this information with law enforcement, assisting in freezing the related funds.
Zach has never worked for any institution, but his investigations have attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies worldwide. The U.S. Secret Service has cited his research, and the French cybercrime unit contacted him faster than the police. Arkham hired him to reveal the identities of wallet holders. To date, he has assisted in recovering over $435 million in stolen funds. And he has done all this anonymously, never appearing in public.
He has exposed several crypto influencers, including BitBoy, Logan Paul, Lark Davis, and Kyle Chasse. Whether they have lawyers or large fan bases, he is unafraid. He tracks phishing gangs, airdrop dumpers, KOL frontrunners, and insider traders. In four years, he has published over 200 investigative reports.
In 2025, Paradigm officially announced that Zach joined the team as an incident response consultant. Co-founder Matt Huang publicly thanked him for recovering over $350 million for victims. Even after four years, Zach still maintains that cartoon platypus avatar and his relentless pursuit of the truth.
ZachXBT has become the industry standard. His investigations have not only changed exchange policies but also helped bring scammers to justice and transformed on-chain analysis into a force for good. From exposing scams, he has gradually built one of the most trusted reputations in Web3.
He is the detective of the crypto world: ZachXBT.
If you want to support ZachXBT's work, here is his donation wallet address:
EVM:
0x9D727911B54C455B0071A7B682FcF4Bc444B5596
SOL: investigations.sol
BTC:
bc1qus70g077qqpue70ldk6grvh3qexvfhu5kn6wv7
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