Crypto Community Donates $1M to Sleuth ZachXBT After Defamation Lawsuit

Crypto community and prominent businesses have donated over $1 million in various stablecoins and tokens to ZachXBT as the popular blockchain sleuth prepares to fight defamation charges.

Data from the on-chain analytics tool Nansen show ZachXBT received USD Coin (USDC), tether (USDT), dai (DAI) – and even memecoins such as JESUS and PEPE – from hundreds of wallets.

Backers include crypto exchanges Binance, security firm CertiK, and Tron creator Justin Sun, among others. Most of these funds were received on the Ethereum blockchain, with smaller amounts sent from Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Optimism, Polygon and Fantom based tokens.

ZachXBT has moved the funds to another address as of Monday morning, the blockchain data shows.

NFT trader MachiBigBrother, otherwise known as Jeffrey Huang, last week sued ZachXBT, an independent blockchain detective, after the on-chain sleuth published a report last year alleging Huang embezzled tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleges ZachXBT defamed MachiBigBrother, “inflict[ing] serious reputational and monetary harm” on him. ZachXBT faces one count of libel and one count of libel per se, according to the complaint.

At the time, ZachXBT asked followers to help support the legal costs associated with fighting the lawsuit – aiming to raise at least $1 million.