Blockchain investigator faces backlash after Binance partnership

ZachXBT is being bashed for partnering with Binance to help investors track missing and stolen funds on the BNB chain, with one member calling the investigator’s collaboration with the crypto exchange “the biggest letdown for most of crypto Twitter.”

BNB Chain announced late Wednesday that it enlisted the services of blockchain security sleuth ZachXBT to help the BNB Chain community “keep the ecosystem fairer and transparent,” as Cryptopolitan reported.

After the news broke, some netizens started calling the security analyst a “hypocrite” for joining the “biggest and most proven manipulators in the game.”

“You fight against ruggers and scammers…Only to become CZ Chigga’s b*tch overnight. Aura went from +100 to -100 real quick. Wouldn’t have seen this coming in a million years,” wrote a pseudonymous crypto trader going by the handle k1z4 on X.

ZachXBT: Grants from chains are how I fund my work

Anonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who built his reputation by exposing crypto frauds and tracking stolen funds on blockchains, has fired back at his critics. He wrote a statement on X early Thursday morning saying grants from blockchain networks are one of the few ways he can fund his investigations.

“After the team reached out asking how to best support my future investigations and incident response on BNB Chain, I agreed. They are a top-10 chain by every metric, and their logo now appears on my banner alongside other networks like Arbitrum and Optimism,” he jotted down in response to the accusations lodged by k1z4.

Then you’re just being a hypocrite. If you claim to fight scams, you need a code and a line you won’t cross. Everyone knows what Binance/CZ are, yet you never wrote a word despite having receipts? And that “chain grants” spin come on…dignity also means refusing checks from the…

— k1z4 (@k1z4_) November 6, 2025

ZachXBT added he could not work with the BNB ecosystem previously due to limited funding, not bias, citing proof of how he helped solve incidents like the $50 million Uranium exploit and a Discord compromise.

“Interesting how the people upset are the ones who contribute nothing and ask the most from me,” he reckoned.

Investigator’s integrity and independence questioned

That explanation did little to satisfy the naysayers like k1z4, who continued to say he was compromising his integrity by accepting money from Binance, a crypto exchange whose founder Changpeng Zhao fought money laundering and regulatory headaches over the years.

“If you claim to fight scams, you need a code and a line you won’t cross,” k1z4 wrote. “Everyone knows what Binance and CZ are, yet you never wrote a word despite having receipts. Dignity also means refusing checks from the very people you’re supposed to be fighting.”

ZachXBT responded by mentioning his troubles when conducting investigations without institutional support. “A full investigation into an exploit like Uranium easily took 150+ hours,” he said, listing law enforcement communications, tracing, OSINT work, and detailed reports among his usual workload.

The crypto security sleuth shared a screenshot of an X post from k1z4 revealing the trader had lost a huge chunk of his portfolio’s value during the October 10 mass liquidation event. According to k1z4, stop-loss orders failed to execute after an oracle feed malfunction caused a price freeze that triggered liquidations in several wallets.

“Sorry you gambled away your overleveraged portfolio on 10/10 instead of simply holding a spot and have decided to instead take it out on others,” ZachXBT replied.

k1z4 accused him of deflecting blame and failing to investigate a “system failure” on Binance that had wiped out millions in user funds.

“There are tons of threads, tons of data, a lot of people lost everything that day. And you, the so-called fighter for justice, decided to pay your bills by helping the very criminals you used to call out,” the disgruntled crypto enthusiast complained.

ZachXBT countered that they underestimated the amount of work and evidence verification required to produce credible reports.

“If you’ve collected all that supposed evidence, why not write a detailed research report yourself? Then you might realize how complex these investigations really are,” Zach bit back.

Some community members brought up 2023 reports of Binance founder CZ donating to his legal defense fund during his defamation lawsuit with Taiwanese-American entrepreneur Jeffrey Huang, also known as Machi Big Brother.

ZachXBT’s 2022 article alleged Huang had misappropriated millions of dollars in Ethereum from a crypto project. The investigator publicly denied wrongdoing and raised over $1 million in donations from the crypto community to cover his legal expenses.