CoinJie.com reports:
ZachXBT doesn’t operate in the shadows; he is the shadow. This self-taught anonymous cryptocurrency investigator has been tracking scammers, hackers, and criminals in the industry for the past three years. From industry elites to celebrities and influential individuals, no one is too big for Zach. No one knows his real name, where he lives, or even what he looks like. But cryptocurrency thieves certainly know his reputation. Zach’s journey as a blockchain investigator is a compelling story.
Andy Greenberg of Wired recently highlighted his relentless pursuit of cryptocurrency scammers in a detailed report, outlining the sharp mind of this relentless investigator. Apart from his sharp mind and tireless efforts in tracking the darkest cryptocurrency transactions, Zach has become the go-to person for sniffing out fraud and stolen funds.
The profile begins with a story on August 19th. Zach was at the airport, getting ready to board a plane, when his phone received an alert. It was the kind of alert he lives for: $600,000 worth of Bitcoin being transferred to a small exchange. Zach immediately sensed something was amiss. This was much larger than the typical transactions he saw on exchanges. As he approached the boarding gate, more pings hit his phone—another $1 million, then $2 million.
He knew this wasn’t a lucky day trader cashing out. This was a theft, and Zach was racing against time to find out where the money was going. Before the plane’s Wi-Fi kicked in at 10,000 feet in the air, he traced the funds back to a Bitcoin wallet untouched since 2012. Within hours, he discovered that someone had stolen $243 million from a victim.
Once the Wi-Fi on the plane connected, Zach got back to work, mapping out the stolen Bitcoin as it moved through various exchanges and coin mixing services, clearly attempting to cover its tracks. It was typical cryptocurrency money laundering.
By the time his plane landed, Zach had identified three main suspects and issued real-time theft alerts to his 650,000 followers. While he helped apprehend some individuals, the case was not completely closed. Authorities managed to seize $79 million, but over $100 million remained missing. The third suspect identified by Zach is still at large.
According to Cryptopolitan, this individual may be connected to a violent carjacking and kidnapping case in Connecticut, where the parents of a victim were targeted because their son was believed to control a significant amount of cryptocurrency assets.
Despite most of the funds remaining unaccounted for (over $100 million still missing), Zach didn’t rest. He continued to follow leads and collaborate with law enforcement to recover more funds.
Meanwhile, the third suspect who has not been arrested remains elusive, with evidence suggesting involvement in a kidnapping case in Connecticut. The suspect allegedly targeted the parents of a wealthy cryptocurrency investor, believing the victim’s son had access to a large amount of digital currency.
Since taking on the role of an online detective in 2021, Zach has tracked billions of dollars in stolen funds, helped recover $210 million in cryptocurrency, and exposed scams that most law enforcement agencies didn’t touch until it was too late.
The numbers speak for themselves—Zach has become the ultimate law enforcer in the cryptocurrency space. He operates almost entirely on donations, in the form of contributions and cryptocurrency donations from strangers supporting his work.
So far, the detective claims to have received approximately $1.3 million in cryptocurrency donations. Secret Service analyst Joe McGill said, “His success is directly related to the success of the investigations.” He has closely collaborated with Zach on multiple cases.
McGill is not the only one impressed by Zach’s achievements. Nick Bax, founder of cryptocurrency investigation firm Five I’s, half-jokingly wonders if Zach is a machine. Zach’s ability to complete hundreds of transactions within hours is impressive.
Bax recalls giving Zach a list of 500 transactions one Saturday night, asking him to analyze them manually. By the next afternoon, Zach had connected the dots, completing a task that would have taken others days or weeks.
Taking down the big players
By around 2022, Zach had gained a reputation in the cryptocurrency underworld, but his most notable bust was yet to come.
One case that directly caught the attention of law enforcement was his investigation into the theft of $2.5 million worth of NFTs through a phishing attack. This time, the thief was not an anonymous teenager but two French hackers.
Zach’s meticulous blockchain tracking led French prosecutors to arrest five suspects connected to the theft. His work snowballed, with each investigation leading to bigger cases and more money.
Last year, Zach tracked down $9 million stolen from the cryptocurrency project Platypus. Within a few hours, he had identified the suspects. The two individuals were arrested within a week, and although the charges were later dropped, millions of dollars were recovered.
In the same year, he traced the $25 million theft from Uranium Finance. The thief behind this heist laundered the money in a creative way, purchasing rare Magic: The Gathering cards.
“It’s very fulfilling to see law enforcement taking action on things I’ve shared with them. It makes me feel like maybe I’m really doing what I’ve always been meant to do,” he said.
Connections to North Korea
One of Zach’s most significant investigations to date occurred in 2023 when he exposed a North Korean hacker network, Lazarus Group, that had stolen over $200 million in cryptocurrency. Zach discovered that the group had conducted at least 25 hacking attacks, many of which were never publicly reported.
He also uncovered a complex operation where North Korean IT workers infiltrated tech companies and were rewarded with cryptocurrency. These workers were quietly siphoning funds back to the regime.
In one case, a hacker managed to get employed at the NFT company Munchables but ended up stealing $62 million worth of cryptocurrency from the company. Thanks to Zach’s continued digging, the hacker returned the money, unable to launder it without attracting attention.
Zach’s collaboration with law enforcement continues to expand. By mid-2023, he had helped freeze $7 million associated with North Korean hackers.
