Crypto-detective raised $1 million from subscribers in 2 days for legal expenses
The head of Binance said that the crypto exchange will allocate $50,000 to support ZachXBT, a well-known "detective" in the blockchain community
A well-known crypto detective under the pseudonym ZachXBT raised more than $1 million from subscribers to cover legal expenses in two days. On the evening of June 16, he announced that he was being sued for defamation, and published an address for donations for his legal expenses.
ZachXBT wrote on Twitter (the social network is blocked in Russia) that he had been sued by Jeffrey Huang, also known as Machi Big Brother. The plaintiff claims that the crypto detective slandered him in a 2022 article, claiming that Huang embezzled 22,000 ETH from the crypto project Formosa Financial.
Both contributors are well-known opinion leaders in the English-language cryptocurrency community. ZachXBT has released dozens of investigations into major manipulations by crypto projects or Influencers who are seen promoting fraudulent assets. Some of his revelations have formed the basis of law enforcement investigations and resulted in arrests or fines for proven fraud.
Jeffrey Huang is an NFT Influencer known for multi-million dollar deals to buy images from popular collections. According to an investigation from a detective, Huang made his fortune from advertising fraudulent crypto projects. Huang demanded that ZachXBT retract the material and remove it. ZachXBT claimed that "the claim is unfounded and an attempt at censorship, and he intends to fight for freedom of speech."
The crypto signer compared the case to the story of David and Goliath, pointing out that Huang is rich and "uses his capital to silence ZachXBT." ZachXBT wrote that he himself is not as rich, and asked subscribers to help cover his legal fees, which he said could exceed $1 million.
He published an address for donations. On the evening of June 16, it had about $57,000 in cryptocurrency, according to The Block. As of June 19, the amount of cryptocurrency funds sent to the cryptocurrency address over the weekend exceeded $1 million. He began withdrawing them to the Uniswap exchange.
Changpeng Zhao, head of Binance, decided to support ZachXBT and wrote that the cryptocurrency exchange would send him $50,000. Following Zhao in the comments, various crypto projects started tagging, reporting their donations, and wishing him good luck.
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