Pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, who for years has conducted volunteer on-chain investigations into alleged financial misconduct in the cryptocurrency industry, has been sued for defamation by an entrepreneur he had previously scrutinized.
In June 2022, ZachXBT accused Taiwanese-American musician and tech executive Jeffrey Huang, known also by his online handle Machi Big Brother, of embezzling 22,000 ETH—worth roughly $37.8 million at writing—from a defunct crypto treasury management platform Huang had co-founded. The sleuth backed up the assertion with on-chain data.
AD
On Thursday, Huang filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleging the accusations were false and that ZachXBT is now liable for damages to Huang’s reputation.
“I have consistently maintained that the allegations in his article are false,” Huang wrote on Twitter Friday. “I look forward to proving through the lawsuit that [he] unlawfully defamed me.”
Critically, to file the suit, Huang and his attorneys managed to ascertain ZachXBT’s legal name and place of residence. As ZachXBT has, for years now, publicly probed numerous powerful actors in the crypto space, his ability to remain anonymous has been key to his sustained presence as a leading voice in the Crypto Twitter community, and the crypto industry more broadly. The investigator’s legal name is now visible in copies of Thursday’s lawsuit uploaded to multiple public databases.
“The lawsuit is baseless and an attempt to chill free speech,” he wrote. “It is sickening to see it come to this, but I knew one day this would happen as the price of telling the truth is sometimes people dislike what you say.”