Crypto Detective ZachXBT Faces Defamation Lawsuit – Jeffrey Huang, who is popularly recognized as MachiBigBrother in the NFT trading community, has filed a lawsuit against ZachXBT, an independent detective specializing in blockchain, following the publication of a report in the previous year. The report made claims that Huang was involved in embezzling a substantial sum of cryptocurrency, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
On Friday, a lawsuit was initiated in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, accusing ZachXBT of defaming MachiBigBrother. The lawsuit claims that ZachXBT’s actions have caused significant damage to MachiBigBrother’s reputation and financial well-being. According to the complaint, ZachXBT is facing charges of libel and libel per se, with one count each.
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“Without any regard for the ruinous effect that public allegations of criminal conduct can produce for the accused individual, ZachXBT not only proceeded to publish his defamatory article on Medium.com, he also maliciously promoted the article to his more than 300,000 Twitter followers,” MachiBigBrother’s lawyer said in the complaint. The lawyer representing MachiBigBrother has not provided an immediate response to the comment request.
In the lawsuit, reference is made to an investigation conducted by ZachXBT, which was published on his blog and Twitter in June 2022. The investigation claimed that MachiBigBrother engaged in market manipulation within the crypto industry and embezzled 22,000 ether, valued at approximately $38 million at the time of writing. ZachXBT responded to the lawsuit on Twitter Friday, calling it “a classic David and Goliath story.”
“My understanding is that Machi[BigBrother] is very wealthy,” ZachXBT tweeted. “I am not. He is using his money to try to silence me.” Within the same Twitter thread, the blockchain investigator expressed concern over the potentially exorbitant expenses associated with defending himself in the lawsuit, estimating it could amount to over $1 million. In an effort to gather support, he appealed to his followers, urging them to contribute cryptocurrency to a dedicated wallet specifically created to cover his legal expenses.
“I’m asking for your help so this doesn’t happen & the truth survives,” he said.
The wallet has racked up almost $95,000 worth of crypto donations as of publication time. The complaint requests the court order ZachXBT to pay “actual and compensatory damages,” in addition to “exemplary damages” of an amount to be determined by the court. It also requests Jeffrey Huang be reimbursed for any legal fees he racks up during the impending legal battle.
ZachXBT gained immense recognition within the cryptocurrency community by releasing original analyses of blockchain data, which purportedly revealed the unethical activities of individuals involved in decentralized finance and Web3 domains. These investigations not only garnered him a substantial following of over 400,000 Twitter users but also earned him a place on Consensus Magazine’s esteemed list of the Most Influential individuals in 2022.
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Billing himself an “on-chain sleuth,” ZachXBT often publishes the results of his investigations in Twitter threads and blog posts on Medium. His detective work has led to real-world arrests and gained so much traction on social media that he was forced to stop accepting community requests to investigate nefarious activities in the crypto sphere last March.
