Blockchain Detective ZachXBT’s Account Subpoenaed for an ‘Unclear Reason’

Cryptocurrency investigator ZachXBT has revealed on social media that his X account and a few others received a subpoena from a court requesting additional information for unspecified reasons. On October 21, he shared two screenshots regarding the request.

The first depicted the court’s request for specific information that X was mandated to provide. The second screenshot displayed the notice sent to the social media platform regarding the legal inquiry.

Subpoena Reasons Remain Unclear

Despite the need for more clarity regarding the reason for the subpoena, the requested information is extensive, encompassing names, billing records, IP addresses, phone numbers, detailed text records, and session time logs, among other data points.

It seems that my account and a few others were subpoenaed for overly broad info for an unclear reason.

I do appreciate that X policy is to notify you of this if it happens. pic.twitter.com/MNML5LMiUX

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 21, 2023

However, ZachXBT pointed out that the broad nature of the request may only guarantee that X can furnish some of it, particularly since the inquiry appeared unrelated to his account.

In response to speculation from some X users suggesting that ZachXBT might get summoned as a witness in court, he indicated he would decline to assist due to concerns about the approach taken.

In June 2023, NFT trader Jeffrey Huang, also known as MachiBigBrother, initiated a lawsuit against the blockchain investigator concerning an investigation published in June 2022. ZachXBT countered the lawsuit, dismissing it as “baseless” and an attempt to stifle freedom of speech. He expressed his commitment to contest the allegations vigorously.

ZachXBT’s Prior Defamation Lawsuit

In a follow-up post related to the Huang lawsuit, ZachXBT provided a link to the Medium article titled “22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang).” It alleged that Huang played a part in over ten failed pump-and-dump tokens and NFT projects, including Formosa Financial, a treasury management service.

According to ZachXBT, the embezzled funds from the treasury were subsequently sent to various wallet accounts, including one associated with the Ethereum Name Service domain harrisonhuang.eth. Combining this information with other blockchain data, ZachXBT concluded that these addresses linked to Jeff Huang/Mithril, ultimately attributing responsibility to Huang for the fund drainage.

However, in August 2023, Huang withdrew his defamation lawsuit after ZachXBT toned down his accusations. Notably, prominent figures like Tron founder Justin Sun and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao supported ZachXBT, contributing over a million dollars in donations within just a few days. ZachXBT later stated his intention to provide transparency in returning unused funds from the legal defense.