Today, well-known NFT trader and crypto figure Jeffrey Huang, who goes by the Web3 pseudonym Machi Big Brother, announced that he had filed a lawsuit against on-chain internet detective ZachXBT. Huang accused the latter of “publishing and maliciously promoting an article that was falsely presented [Huang] as a criminal who had embezzled millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and manipulated markets” and refused to delete the post and accompanying tweet when asked.
The article referenced by Huang in the lawsuit is titled “22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang)” and was published exactly one year ago, on June 16, 2022. In it, ZachXBT argued that Huang , a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur and former musician, embezzled 22,000 ETH ($37 million) from the treasury management platform Formosa Financial in 2018, and has since participated in several failed crypto and NFT projects.
ZachXBT and Machi Big Brother go public
A year ago, @zachxbt published a Medium article about me that damaged my reputation.
Today I filed a defamation lawsuit against him in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.— Machi Big Brother (@machibigbrother) June 16, 2023
“I have consistently maintained that the allegations in his article are false,” Huang wrote on Twitter announcing the lawsuit to his followers. “I look forward to proving through the lawsuit that @ZachXBT unlawfully defamed me.”
ZachXBT is well regarded in the NFT space for documenting Web3 scams and subsequent movements and money flows across various blockchains and wallets. He has drawn attention to some of the biggest botched projects and scams in crypto art recent memory, including Pixelmon, Pixel Penguins, Friendsies, and more.
2/ This is a classic David & Goliath story. I understand that Machi is very rich. I am not. He’s using his money to silence me. I ask for your help so that this does not happen & the truth survives.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) June 16, 2023
“I am sorry to have to make this thread, but I am being sued by MachiBigBrother for an article I published in June 2022,” ZachXBT wrote today as he revealed details of the lawsuit. “Today, Machi filed the libel lawsuit. The lawsuit is baseless and an attempt to curb freedom of expression. I intend to fight back and defend freedom of expression.”
Donations are pouring in
Huang is a well-known professional NFT trader and has been one of the biggest driving forces in the Blur marketplace in recent months. has been accused of wielding so much financial power in the crypto art market that it is capable of causing its manipulation.
As such, ZachXBT called on his followers to help raise money for legal fees for the upcoming lawsuit, which he says Huang will try to win by playing a game of financial exhaustion. He encouraged supporters to donate ETH to an address he provided, and in less than an hour received remarkable financial assistance from the crypto community.
One of the larger donations to the cause came from Memeland, the Web3 venture studio of internet meme mainstay 9GAG. The project donated 6.9 ETH (approximately $12,000) to charity. At the time of writing, the wallet address ZachXBT provided had collected nearly $100,000 in donations.
Editor’s Note: This story was in development and has been updated.