ZachXBT: American 18-Year-Old Hacker Dritan Allegedly Involved in $19 Million Crypto Theft and Money Laundering
Odaily Planet Daily News On-chain detective ZachXBT has published an exposé on U.S. threat actor Dritan Kapllani Jr., alleging his involvement in social engineering theft activities targeting cryptocurrency users, totaling approximately $19 million.
ZachXBT stated that Dritan has long been flaunting luxury cars, high-end watches, private jets, and a nightclub lifestyle on social media. On April 23, 2026, during a "Band 4 Band (B4B)" voice call on Discord, in an attempt to prove he was wealthier than another hacker, he publicly displayed an Exodus wallet containing $3.68 million in assets.
The relevant ETH address is: 0x4487db847db2fc99372a985743a26f46e0b2bba6
ZachXBT's investigation traced the address to a social engineering theft incident on March 14, 2026, involving 185 BTC (approximately $13 million). The following day, Dritan's Exodus wallet received about $5.3 million of those funds. By the time of the B4B call six weeks later, approximately $1.6 million had been spent or laundered.
On May 11, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a criminal indictment against Trenton Johnson, charging him with involvement in the aforementioned theft of 185 BTC. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. The indictment refers to "Co-Conspirator 1 (CC-1)," who is identified as Dritan, though he has not yet been formally charged.
ZachXBT also noted a connection between Dritan and hacker John Daghita (Lick), who was previously arrested for stealing $46 million from the U.S. government. John had previously exposed Dritan's old wallet address on Telegram. On-chain analysis shows that this address is linked to multiple high-confidence social engineering thefts in 2025, with a cumulative amount exceeding $5.85 million.
ZachXBT stated that Dritan has been active in the "The Com" hacker community for a long time and had seemingly avoided formal prosecution due to his minor status. Now that he has turned 18, "the borrowed time may finally be up."
