CZ, Powell and more rally to fund legal fees for on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, surpassing $1M

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has received over $1 million in donations in slightly more 24 hours from the crypto community to pay for his legal fees in a defamation lawsuit brought by someone he accused of fraud.

ZachXBT, known for his investigative work in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, had legal action taken against him from Jeffrey Huang, who is known as MachiBigBrother on Twitter.

On June 16, Huang declared in a tweet that he had filed a defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT accusing him of damaging his reputation through false allegations.

Huang was referring to an article published by ZachXBT in June 2022 titled “22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang)”, where he accused Huang of launching over “over 10 failed pump and dump tokens and NFT projects.”

Responding to the lawsuit in a series of tweets on June 17, ZachXBT called the lawsuit “baseless” and an “attempt to chill free speech.” He noted that the legal fees could “easily exceed” $1 million and set up a donation wallet address for assistance.

3/ I am creating a donation address to assist with legal costs associated with the defense of this matter, which could easily exceed $1m USD.

All leftover funds will be returned on a pro rata basis to contributors.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 16, 2023

He added that the lawsuit “is sickening,” but he “knew one day” it would happen, as that is “the price” of telling the truth.

“The price of telling the truth is sometimes people dislike what you say” he tweeted.

Related: Crypto phishing scams: How users can stay protected

Several crypto executives donated to ZachXBT and praised him for all the work he does in the crypto and web3 industry.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance praised ZachXBT in a tweet telling him to “keep the industry transparent,” along with noting that Binance will “contribute $50K” to his legal fees fundraiser.

Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, althanked ZachXBT for “all that” he does, stating he would be donating 10 Ethereum (ETH) (approx. $17,294.30).

In for 10 ETH. Thanks for all that you do. Good luck.

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) June 18, 2023

Meanwhile, Polygon’s founder Sandeep Nailwal tweeted that ZachXBT is the “reason web3 is alive and flourishing,” stating that he will be donating 5 Ether (approx. $8,645.35).

Just one day after ZachXBT tweeted the link to the donation wallet address, he has already surpassed $1 million in donations.

Cointelegraph previously reported in October 2022 that the French authorities had utilized ZachXBT’s research to charge five people on suspicion of stealing $2.5 million worth of nonfungible tokens (NFT) via phishing scams.

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