- The crypto community has rallied around Twitter sleuth ZachXBT following a lawsuit last week
- Donations to his defense fund topped $1 million in just 24 hours
- ZachXBT has been sued for defamation from an angry target
The cryptocurrency community has rallied behind crypto sleuth and scam exposer Zach XBT following a defamation lawsuit by one of his targets. Twitter user MachiBigBrother (real name Jeffrey Huang) sued ZachXBT (Zachary Wolk) over the latter’s claims that Huang defrauded his followers and manipulated the crypto market to the tune of millions of dollars, but if he thought the crypto world was going to be on his side he was wrong; the Ethereum address set up for donations for Wolk’s legal defense topped $1 million within just 24 hours and many top accounts have thrown their support behind him.
Huang Accused of Embezzling 22,000 ETH
The investigation in question centered around Formosa Financial, a defunct crypto treasury management platform co-founded by Huang. Wolk claimed that Huang embezzled millions of dollars worth of Ethereum the platform before the platform closed, backing up his claims with on-chain data. Whereas many recipients of Wolk’s investigations have either ignored his claims or admitted them, Huang has taken the unprecedented step of filing a lawsuit against him.
In the complaint, Huang calls Wolk’s allegations that he embezzled 22,000 ETH worth tens of millions of dollars “categorically false” and claims that there is an “absence of proof to justify his defamatory characterizations of Plaintiff as a thief and market manipulator”, including the suggestion that he never had control over the funds that Wolk alleges he stole:
Not only did Plaintiff not embezzle funds from the Formosa Financial project, he
also never had control of any Formosa Financial funds, making embezzlement factually impossible.
Huang also questions Wolk’s motivation for writing the piece, saying that it was “motivated by his desire to personally profit from the article”, presumably through the donations he receives through his work, and that Formosa Financial threatened Wolk’s investment in a similar app, Breadcrumb Apps.
Donations Cross $1 Million in 24 Hours
The crypto space has been in no doubt who its voice, and money, is behind, however, with Wolk’s tweet regarding the lawsuit catching over 7.5 million views on Twitter and receiving support from a variety of personas:
#Binance will contribute $50k. Keep up the fight. Keep the industry transparent. 💪
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 17, 2023
@Quantstamp has donated $40k, we stand by ZachXBT and the people who strive to protect the security of our space ✊
— angel (@annngelkek) June 17, 2023
A lawsuit has been filed by @machibigbrother against ZachXBT for defamation.
Why? The complaint alleges that ZachXBT has “falsely accused” Machi as being a “criminal that had embezzled millions of dollars…” pic.twitter.com/HJLqBwevEC
— Ariel Givner, Esq. (@GivnerAriel) June 16, 2023
Wolk said in his tweet thread that “He (Huang) is using his money to try (and) silence me. I’m asking for your help so this doesn’t happen.” He later added his belief this such an outcome had only been a matter of time:
5/ It is sickening to see it come to this but I knew one day this would happen as the price of telling the truth is sometimes people dislike what you say.
I have always kept my research as objective as possible and let the data and historical record speak for themselves.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 16, 2023
Donations began pouring in from the community, reminiscent of Hodlonaut’s fundraising attempt after being sued by Craig Wright in 2019, and topped $1 million in 24 hours.
Of course, strength of support does not matter in a courtroom, but hopefully the donations will ensure that Wolk can at least fight a fair fight.
