Blockchain investigator ZachXBT received more than $1 million in donations from the crypto community in just over 24 hours to pay for his legal fees in a defamation lawsuit.
ZachXBT, known for his investigative work in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, is embroiled in a legal dispute with Jeffrey Huang, better known as MachiBigBrother on Twitter.
On June 16, Huang announced in a tweet that he had filed a defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT, accusing him of damage his reputation through false accusations.
While Huang did not specify what the allegations were, in June 2022 an article released ZachXBT titled “22,000 ETH Embezzled and More than Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Big Brother Machi (Jeff Huang)”, accusing Huang of launching more than 10 failed token pump and dump and NFT projects.
Responding to the lawsuit in a series of tweets on June 17, ZachXBT called the lawsuit “baseless” and an “attempt to freeze free speech.” He set up a donation wallet address for his followers to help with the legal fees, which he said could “easily exceed” $1 million.
3/ I am creating a donation address to help with the legal costs associated with defending this matter, which could easily exceed $1M.
Any remaining funds will be returned to contributors on a pro rata basis.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 16, 2023
He added that the lawsuit “is disgusting” but “one day he knew” it would happenbecause that is the “price” of honesty.
“Sometimes the price of telling the truth is that people don’t like what you say,” he tweeted.
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Several crypto executives donated to ZachXBT and praised him for his work in the crypto and web3 industry.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance crypto exchange, praised ZachXBT va tweet told him to “keep the industry transparent,” along with a promise that Binance would “contribute $50,000” to his legal fees
Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, also thanked ZachXBT for “everything” he does, saying he’s donating 10 Ethereum (ETH) (approximately $17,294.30).
For 10 ETH. Thanks for all you do. Good luck.
— Jesse Powell (@jespow) June 18, 2023
Meanwhile, Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal tweeted that ZachXBT is “the reason web3 lives and thrives.” stating that he donates 5 Ether (approx. $8,645.35).
Just one day after tweeting the link to the donation wallet address, ZachXBT has already crossed the $1 million mark in contributions.
Cointelegraph previously reported in October 2022 that French authorities used ZachXBT research to charge five people under suspicion the theft of $2.5 million worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through phishing scams.
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