Another typical question of whether to speak out or to remain anonymous.

Written by: Eric, Foresight News

ZachXBT, a person who sticks to punishing evil and promoting good in the dark forest of Web3, playing the role of Gotham’s Batman, has recently been suspected of having his true identity exposed.

A user named Matthew learned ZachXBT's name and location through the lawsuit documents against him by "Brother Ma Ji" Huang Licheng, successfully finding this "anonymous hero" through local public databases.

In June 2022, ZachXBT published a lengthy Medium article accusing Huang Licheng of participating in multiple "junk projects," including Mithril, Formosa Financial, Machi X, Cream Finance, and Swag Finance, accusing him of misappropriating about 22,000 Ethereum from Formosa Financial, accompanied by on-chain transaction data as evidence.

Huang Licheng believes these accusations seriously damage his reputation and cause economic losses, requesting multiple times for ZachXBT to delete or amend the article, but the latter refused. On June 16, 2023, Huang Licheng officially filed a defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, seeking an apology and compensation. Huang Licheng stated that he only wanted an apology and that all compensation would be donated to charity.

Matthew discovered a trace in the lawsuit documents: ZachXBT's real name is Zachary Wolk, residing in Kingsland, Texas.

Based on this information, Matthew found Zachary Wolk’s details in a swimming competition database, confirming he is a swimmer from Austin Vandegrift High School in Texas.

This public unboxing behavior sparked dissatisfaction among many. Some comments in the section noted that after the related documents were published, those with intent had actually known ZachXBT's identity long ago, and choosing not to disclose it was a form of protection for him. Others pointed out that ZachXBT had tracked on-chain behavior related to terrorist financing and the North Korean state-sponsored hacking organization Lazarus Group, and arbitrarily exposing his identity could pose a threat to his life.

However, in fact, exposing the identity is not the entirety of the tweet. As some users mentioned, this public information can be found, and what Matthew really wanted to convey is that ZachXBT is not "an unassailable monolith."

Matthew stated that on May 7 of this year, ZachXBT offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to LAB founder Vova Sadkov. The bounty explicitly requested: "passport or government-issued ID information," but in the United States, paying for someone else's passport information is illegal and can lead to a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

In February this year, ZachXBT publicly tweeted that he would launch a "major investigation" into one of the most profitable businesses in the cryptocurrency sector. Polymarket even opened a "betting" market for this matter, reaching a total trading volume of $40 million. But just hours before ZachXBT disclosed the subjects of the investigation, 12 newly created addresses heavily invested in Axiom with low odds, making a profit of $1.2 million.

ZachXBT later responded, stating that he had contacted the Axiom team before making the announcement, which may have led to the information leak. Subsequently, ZachXBT stated he would not give such notices in the future.

Looking back in time, in January 2025, an anonymous developer airdropped 50% of the total supply of the ZACHXBT token (500 million tokens) to ZachXBT's address. ZachXBT later profited nearly $4 million by selling these tokens. He stated that the issuance of the token named after him had not received his permission, and the sale was to maintain his reputation.

Clearly, Matthew feels that such behavior has a sense of "eating meat with a bowl in hand, then cursing your mother after setting it down."

Finally, Matthew raised a very subjective "criticism": ZachXBT has received donations from Zhao Changpeng, Sun Yuchen, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal; in addition, he also received donations from Optimism, Hyperliquid, Bybit, etc. Therefore, you have never seen ZachXBT expose any negative events related to these donors.

Matthew stated that between December 2024 and January 2026, ZachXBT published negative investigations against Hyperliquid seven times. On January 18, 2026, Hyperliquid transferred 10,000 HYPE tokens to ZachXBT, after which ZachXBT never mentioned Hyperliquid again.

What Matthew did not mention is that ZachXBT had previously accused Binance of insider trading and market manipulation, but later became a partner with BNB Chain to combat fraud and track funds, which also received considerable criticism at the time.

Finally, Matthew issued a "soul-searching question" to ZachXBT's supporters: do not deify him, the standards you apply to others should also apply to ZachXBT.

ZachXBT has indeed recently found himself embroiled in some controversies. In recent months, ZachXBT has questioned the short-term surges of RAVE and LAB tokens, accusing both projects of high token concentration, insider trading, and other issues, and subsequently, he has also taken actions like offering a reward for LAB founder's personal information, as stated by Matthew.

Before these two incidents escalated, even with some controversies in ZachXBT’s behavior, he was almost drowned out by voices of support and understanding. But this extreme behavior has sparked considerable opposition, with many not understanding why ZachXBT, who previously spoke out for retail investors, would now target two tokens that surged in a bear market, even leading to a short-term drop in token prices, ultimately causing losses for many retail investors.

For many Web3 investors, the volatility of small-cap coins is not an accidental phenomenon and has even become a target of study for many investors; insider trading and other situations are also the industry's unspoken rules. Therefore, many critics believe that the two targets chosen by ZachXBT may carry personal emotions, rather than being motivated by public interest as before.

In Matthew's eyes, ZachXBT has collapsed. Perhaps at first, ZachXBT aspired to become an on-chain detective to punish evil and promote good due to his own experiences of being deceived, but gradually, this original intention is no longer pure; whether being tempted by interests or threatened by power, there is indeed a lot of evidence proving that ZachXBT now shows some selectivity in exposing targets.

Is a flawed hero still a hero? From the comments section, it seems that most people have given an affirmative answer. Many believe that no one is perfect; although some exchanges of interests may exist, it cannot overshadow the fact that ZachXBT has bravely stood up against injustice. After all, he still stands on the front line, which is certainly better than silence.