According to a post by CryptoCity on June 9 citing an anonymous X account @matthewabides, the on-chain investigator ZachXBT’s real name is Zachary Wolk. The post claims he identified this through OSINT methods and by matching against 2023 defamation lawsuit documents. The post also accuses ZachXBT of setting up a community fund in 2023, raising about $1.1 million.
Alleged Basis for the Identity Claims: Court Documents and OSINT
(Source: @matthewabides post)
The anonymous source claims two identity-verification grounds:
2023 Defamation Lawsuit: The whistleblower claims that the 2023 defamation lawsuit filed by NFT investor Jeff Huang against ZachXBT is one of the public records involving ZachXBT’s real name. Huang’s lawsuit against ZachXBT is a confirmed public record; whether the specific identity information in the court documents matches the way the whistleblower describes it could not be independently verified by this report.
OSINT Matching: The whistleblower claims that they confirmed the identity by matching swimming competition records, high school information, and local news archives, and that they are an investor from Eastern Europe. Neither the above OSINT methods nor the claimed matching results have been verified by any independent organization.
Financial Allegations: Community Fund, Hyperliquid Grants, and Donor List
The following are the financial-related allegations from the anonymous account, all of which are the whistleblower’s claims with no independent evidence yet:
Community Fund: The whistleblower claims that in 2023 ZachXBT set up a “community advocacy fund,” raising about $1.1 million. The donors allegedly include Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Tron founder Justin Sun, Kraken founder Jesse Powell, and Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Hyperliquid and Other Financial Allegations: The whistleblower claims that after ZachXBT criticized Hyperliquid, he received $HYPE token subsidies, and then the volume of criticism toward that platform from ZachXBT decreased. The whistleblower also claims that ZachXBT had received funding support from Optimism and some centralized exchanges.
Meme Coin Allegations: The whistleblower claims that in 2025 meme coins issued in ZachXBT’s name involved sales records of about $3.87 million. The related tokens are said to have been transferred to an address without ZachXBT’s knowledge, and were later sold “to protect his reputation.”
As of Publication: No Parties Have Responded
Based on the publicly available information in CryptoCity’s report on June 9, 2026: ZachXBT has issued no formal response to the identity allegations and financial allegations. The named donors Changpeng Zhao, Justin Sun, Jesse Powell, and Sandeep Nailwal have also made no related statements. Hyperliquid and Optimism have likewise not responded to the subsidy allegations.
FAQ
Which facts in this incident are confirmed as publicly verified records?
Confirmed facts include: the anonymous account @matthewabides published related posts on X on June 9, 2026; Jeff Huang’s 2023 defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT is a confirmed public record; as of the time of the report, ZachXBT has not issued any formal response. All specific allegations in the posts related to identity and financial dealings are claims by the anonymous whistleblower and have not been independently verified.
What exactly is the “conflict of interest” alleged by the whistleblower?
The core of the conflict of interest claimed by the whistleblower is that after ZachXBT received funding support for certain projects—especially Hyperliquid—his volume of criticism toward those projects decreased, which may affect his credibility as an independent on-chain investigator. At present, there is no independent evidence supporting the alleged funding relationships or their impact on his behavior.
What role does ZachXBT play in the crypto community?
ZachXBT is a well-known anonymous on-chain investigator in the cryptocurrency community. He has long tracked on-chain scams, hacking incidents, and fund flows, and has repeatedly helped identify on-chain criminal cases. This time is the largest-scale public whistleblowing action taken against him so far; the authenticity of the related allegations still awaits independent verification.
