From Losing $15,000 to Becoming Crypto's DeFi Detective: The Rise of On-Chain Investigator ZachXBT

Author: StarPlatinum

Translation: TechFlow

He was scammed when buying cryptocurrency in 2017, losing over $15,000. To figure out what happened, he started researching blockchain explorers. Today, he has become one of the most formidable investigators in crypto.

Who is ZachXBT?

Before becoming a blockchain detective, ZachXBT was just an ordinary retail investor. He trusted projects and heavily invested in NFT collections. Then scams followed. Later, he suffered a hack. In 2018, he lost over $15,000 worth of ETH. So he opened Etherscan and began digging.

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He taught himself alone—tracing wallets through mixers, joining open-source intelligence (OSINT) circles, sketching fraud flowcharts on paper. He never studied finance or worked in tech. Using only public tools and countless hours, he gradually went deeper. By May 2021, he was ready to act.

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His first case exposed suspicious fundraising by "Impact Theory." Then came the Rogue Society incident: 15,777 NFTs were minted. The developers vanished, and Zach traced the money flow. He tracked wallets and published Discord receipts. Eventually, the founders had to come forward. And this was only the beginning.

He uncovered the $70 million Pixelmon disaster, exposing how the team used mint proceeds to buy Bored Apes. Then, he dismantled a phishing gang that stole $2.5 million worth of BAYC NFTs. Zach identified the scammers via wallet tracking. Ultimately, five suspects were arrested in France, and police publicly thanked him for his contribution.

In 2022, ZachXBT took on his biggest case yet. He released a 10-part report exposing Machi's "Big Brother." He linked 21 wallets to $37 million in missing funds. Machi then sued him for defamation. The crypto community quickly rallied, raising $1 million for Zach's legal defense. Zach did not back down. Eventually, Machi dropped the lawsuit.

ZachXBT continued diving deeper. He tracked North Korea’s Lazarus Group—the hackers behind the Ronin and Harmony bridge breaches. He mapped fund flows, revealing how $200 million moved through Tornado Cash, ChipMixer, and Asian exchanges. He then shared this data with law enforcement, helping freeze the assets.

Zach has never worked for any institution, yet his investigations have drawn global law enforcement attention. The U.S. Secret Service cited his research; France’s cybercrime unit called him faster than local police. Arkham hired him to unmask wallet holders. To date, he has helped recover over $435 million in stolen funds—all while remaining anonymous, never appearing in public.

He has exposed prominent crypto influencers like BitBoy, Logan Paul, Lark Davis, and Kyle Chasse. Regardless of whether they have lawyers or massive fan bases, he shows no fear. He tracks phishing gangs, airdrop dumpers, KOL frontrunners, and insider manipulators. In four years, he has published over 200 investigative threads.

In 2025, Paradigm officially announced that Zach joined the team as an incident response advisor. Co-founder Matt Huang publicly thanked him for helping victims recover over $350 million. Despite four years passing, Zach still uses the same cartoon platypus avatar and remains relentlessly committed to the truth.

ZachXBT has become the industry standard. His investigations have not only changed exchange policies but also helped bring scammers to justice, turning on-chain analysis into a force for justice. Starting from exposing scams, he has steadily built the most trusted reputation in Web3.

He is the detective of the crypto world: ZachXBT.

If you'd like to support ZachXBT's work, here are his donation wallet addresses:

EVM:

0x9D727911B54C455B0071A7B682FcF4Bc444B5596

SOL: investigations.sol

BTC:

bc1qus70g077qqpue70ldk6grvh3qexvfhu5kn6wv7