Machi Big Brother, the NFT whale, has filed a lawsuit for an investigation he conducted and published in June 2022. The investigation accused the trader of stealing a substantial amount of cryptocurrency, valued in the tens of millions of dollars. after the on-chain sleuth published a report last year alleging Huang embezzled tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto.
On Friday, a lawsuit was filed against ZachXBT in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The lawsuit claims that ZachXBT defamed MachiBigBrother, causing significant damage to his reputation and finances. The complaint accuses ZachXBT of one count of libel and one count of libel per se.
According to the complaint, ZachXBT published a defamatory article on Medium.com without considering the harmful consequences it could have on the accused individual. Additionally, he intentionally promoted the article to his large following of over 300,000 Twitter followers. MachiBigBrother’s lawyer highlighted these actions as malicious in the complaint.
In the lawsuit, it is mentioned that ZachXBT conducted an investigation and shared it on his blog and Twitter in June 2022. The investigation accused MachiBigBrother of manipulating cryptocurrency markets and stealing 22,000 ether, which was valued at around $38 million at the time.
ZachXBT took to Twitter to address the lawsuit, describing it as a “David and Goliath” situation. He mentioned that MachiBigBrother is wealthy while he is not, implying that the lawsuit is an attempt to silence him using financial power. ZachXBT expressed concerns about the high cost of fighting the lawsuit, estimating it could exceed $1 million. To cover his legal expenses, he requested that his followers donate cryptocurrency to a specific wallet dedicated to that purpose.
“I’m asking for your help so this doesn’t happen and the truth survives,” he said.
The wallet has racked up almost $95,000 worth of crypto donations as of publication time.
The complaint seeks a court order for ZachXBT to pay both actual and compensatory damages, as well as exemplary damages to be determined by the court. It also requests reimbursement of Jeffrey Huang’s legal fees incurred during the upcoming legal proceedings.
Despite facing the lawsuit, ZachXBT’s lawyer, Stephen Palley from Brown Rudnick, stated that ZachXBT will continue his investigative work without taking a break.
“To my knowledge, our client intends to carry on with his work,”
by Stephen Palley
He added, “We intend to vigorously defend this lawsuit and protect [ZachXBT] against this attempt to chill his free speech.”
ZachXBT gained a lot of attention and popularity in the cryptocurrency community by sharing his own analyses of blockchain data. He uncovered wrongdoing by certain individuals in the decentralized finance and Web3 sectors. Because of his investigations, he has gained over 400,000 followers on Twitter and was recognised as one of the most influential people in the cryptocurrency industry by Consensus Magazine in 2022.
ZachXBT is someone who investigates things related to cryptocurrency, like scams and security problems. He has done a lot of work in this area and has become well-known for it.
Later in October 2022, French units will make use of crypto sleuth ZackXBT to arrest NFT scammers. According to Cointelegraph, French authorities have used information provided by a blockchain investigator named ZachXBT to take legal action against five individuals. These people are suspected of stealing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) valued at $2.5 million through phishing scams. ZachXBT initiated an investigation and helped arrest the scammers.
After that, in March 2023, hackers managed to steal a huge amount of money, around $195 million, by launching an attack called a “flash loan” on the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform called Euler Finance. ZachXBT, who is an investigator specializing in blockchain technology, suggested that the hackers involved in the incident may have been using a protocol on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) randomly. This highlights the importance for DeFi platforms to ensure they have robust security measures in order to protect against these types of attacks. And suggested that to safeguard the cash of their customers, DeFi platforms must take these dangers seriously and make significant security investments.
