Well-known crypto sleuth ZachXBT has had a defamation lawsuit against him dismissed. Upon the lawsuit’s filing, he initiated a fundraising campaign that raised over $1 million in anticipation of a potential legal battle.
Jeffrey Huang, better known on social media as ‘MachiBigBrother,’ initially filed the lawsuit in retaliation to one of ZachXBT’s investigative articles. The article accused Huang of embezzling funds linked to ten different crypto projects in which he had been involved.
Both ZachXBT and Huang Made Statements Following Lawsuit Dismissal
On June 17, Machi filed the lawsuit against ZachXBT in the United States District Court, alleging that ZachXBT’s Medium article ‘A Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang)’ – published in June 2022 – damaged his reputation.
The filing claimed that Huang had been presented as a perpetrator involved in illegal market activities.
“This case is about holding the Defendant, a self-proclaimed internet “sleuth” accountable for publishing and maliciously promoting an article that falsely presented Plaintiff as a criminal that had embezzled millions of dollars of cryptocurrency and manipulated markets.”
Immediately after its filing, ZachXBT took to Twitter to express his disappointment. He set up a wallet for a donation of funds to assist with legal fees, anticipating it could exceed $1 million.
Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, Kraken founder Jesse Powell, and TRON founder Justin Sun were among the donors. Within the initial 48 hours of the callout, he collected donations exceeding $1 million.
On Aug. 15, in two separate tweets, ZachXBT and Huang announced the lawsuit’s withdrawal.
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Both tweets indicate that the matter was resolved in an amicable matter.
ZachXBT stated in his tweet that he has updated the article with “additional context” from Huang. However, he expresses that it should never have gone to court in the first place.
“While I am disappointed it went down the legal route in the first place, I am appreciative we are able to find a resolution,” he stated.
He added that he is in the process of returning any unused funds from the lawsuit.
Huang’s tweet acknowledged the dismissal of the lawsuit and also lauded ZachXBT’s work in the crypto industry.
“Zach has many times in the past been of great service to the crypto community and pursuing legal action against him was a last resort but not the right path.”
Updates With Huang’s Commentary
In the article, ZachXBT integrates Huang’s commentary beneath several of the projects he accused Huang of manipulating.
For one of those projects, Mith Cash, the article alleges it grew to a $1 billion total-value locked (TVL) before “crashing violently.”
“Similarly to other projects, the team was ‘anon’ and Jeff as an early buyer”
The article has since undergone an update to reflect Huang’s statement. “Jeff Huang says he lost money from Mith Cash,” it notes.
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