ZachXBT «Sụp Đổ» Nghi Vấn

Original Author: Eric, Foresight News

ZachXBT, a figure in the dark forest of Web3 who consistently punishes evil and promotes good, playing the role of Gotham's Batman, has recently had his true identity seemingly exposed.

A user with the X handle Matthew, through the lawsuit documents filed against ZachXBT by "Big Brother Machi" Huang Licheng, learned his name and location, and successfully found this "anonymous hero" through local public databases.

In June 2022, ZachXBT published a lengthy Medium article detailing allegations that Huang Licheng was involved in multiple "scam projects," including Mithril, Formosa Financial, Machi X, Cream Finance, Swag Finance, and others. He also accused Huang of misappropriating approximately 22,000 Ethereum project funds from Formosa Financial, providing on-chain transaction data as evidence.

Huang Licheng believed these allegations severely damaged his reputation and caused financial losses. He repeatedly asked ZachXBT to delete or modify the article, but his requests were refused. On June 16, 2023, Huang Licheng formally filed a defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, demanding an apology and compensation. Huang stated he only wanted an apology and that any compensation would be donated to charity.

It was from the documents in this lawsuit that Matthew found the clues: ZachXBT's real name is Zachary Wolk, residing in Kingsland, Texas.

Using this information, Matthew searched a swimming competition database and found Zachary Wolk's details, confirming he was a swimmer for Austin Vandegrift High School in Texas.

This public doxxing has sparked significant backlash. Some commenters noted that after the legal documents were released, those with ill intent likely already knew ZachXBT's identity, and choosing not to publicize it was a form of protection for him. Others pointed out that ZachXBT has tracked on-chain activities related to terrorist financing, the North Korean state-sponsored hacker group Lazarus Group, and others, arguing that casually exposing his identity could put his life at risk.

However, exposing his identity was not the entirety of the tweet. As some users mentioned, this public information is discoverable; what Matthew truly aimed to convey is that ZachXBT is not infallible.

Matthew stated that on May 7 of this year, ZachXBT offered a $10,000 bounty for capturing LAB founder Vova Sadkov. The bounty explicitly demanded "passport or government-issued ID information." However, in the United States, paying someone for passport information is illegal and carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison.

In February of this year, ZachXBT publicly tweeted that he would launch a "major investigation" into one of the most profitable businesses in the crypto space. Polymarket even opened a prediction market for this event, which saw a total trading volume of $40 million. However, just hours before ZachXBT revealed the subject of his investigation, 12 newly created addresses heavily bet on Axiom at low odds, profiting $1.2 million.

ZachXBT later responded to this incident, stating that he had contacted the Axiom team before the announcement, which might have led to the information leak. Subsequently, ZachXBT stated he would no longer provide such advance notices in the future.

Looking back further, in January 2025, an anonymous developer airdropped 50% of the total supply (500 million tokens) of the ZACHXBT token to ZachXBT's address. ZachXBT later sold these tokens, profiting nearly $4 million. He stated that issuing a token under his name was done without his permission, and he sold them to protect his reputation.

Clearly, Matthew viewed this behavior as akin to "eating the meat while putting down the chopsticks and cursing the cook."

Finally, Matthew offered a highly subjective "critique": ZachXBT has received donations from Changpeng Zhao, Justin Sun, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, as well as from entities like Optimism, Hyperliquid, and Bybit. Therefore, you never see ZachXBT exposing negative stories related to these donors.

Matthew noted that between December 2024 and January 2026, ZachXBT published seven negative investigations concerning Hyperliquid. On January 18, 2026, Hyperliquid transferred 10,000 HYPE tokens to ZachXBT, after which he never mentioned Hyperliquid again.

What Matthew did not mention is that ZachXBT had previously accused Binance of insider trading and market manipulation. Later, he became an official partner of BNB Chain, assisting in combating scams and tracking funds, which also drew considerable criticism at the time.

In conclusion, Matthew posed a "soul-searching question" to ZachXBT's supporters: Don't create idols. The standards you apply to others should also apply to ZachXBT.

ZachXBT has indeed been embroiled in some controversy recently. Over the past few months, he has publicly questioned the rapidly surging RAVE and LAB tokens, alleging high token concentration and insider trading. Subsequently, as Matthew pointed out, he offered a bounty for the personal information of the LAB founder.

Before these two incidents gained traction, even when ZachXBT's actions were somewhat controversial, they were largely drowned out by voices of support and understanding. However, this recent radical behavior has sparked significant opposition. Besides believing his public bounty for private information was arrogant, many couldn't understand why ZachXBT, who used to fight for retail investors, targeted two projects whose tokens had surged during a bear market. His actions even triggered short-term price drops, ultimately causing losses for many retail investors.

For many Web3 investors, the sharp volatility of low-cap tokens is not an anomaly; it's even a research target for some. Insider trading is also an unspoken rule in the industry. Therefore, many critics believe ZachXBT's choice of these two targets might be driven by personal bias, not his past impartial pursuit of justice.

In Matthew's eyes, ZachXBT has fallen from grace. Perhaps ZachXBT initially aspired to be an on-chain detective punishing evil after being scammed himself, but over time, this original intent became tainted. Whether seduced by profit or threatened by power, there is indeed evidence suggesting ZachXBT has become selective in his targets.

Is a flawed hero still a hero? Judging from the comments, most people still answered yes. Many believe that no one is perfect. While some conflicts of interest may exist, they cannot overshadow the fact that ZachXBT bravely stood up against injustice. After all, he remains on the front lines, which is better than staying silent.