Launching a meme-coin to fund the work of crypto sleuth ZachXBT has caused controversy that is hard to understand from either a technical or moral perspective but fairly easy to grasp when viewed through the lens of personal gain.
It could have been crypto's "We are the world" moment, but the launch of a meme-coin to financially support crypto sleuth Zachary Wolk (ZachXBT) quickly turned into a messy, ugly affair that has increased the already deep divide between different factions of the crypto community.
Long known for his incessant and high-quality work in uncovering crypto criminals and warning about schemes and scams in the space, ZachXBT is nonetheless a polarising figure.
While some regard Zach as "one of the backbones of our industry, " his investigations have earned him multiple enemies, from the scammers he ousts to companies he openly criticizes for failing to help their users.
The crypto sleuth has also been quite vocal against people who fall for scams with small-cap meme coins in the past and has publicly stated he wouldn't help them.
"Degenerate gamblers willingly choosing to gamble on micro-cap meme coins are not actual victims or investors," he said at one point.
So when Zach pulled $4 million from a meme-coin bearing his name on Tuesday, there was a storm of attacks on his good name and reputation.
The infamous quote from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight movie: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain," was paraphrased ad nauseum.
As is often the case in crypto, it all started with a tweet.
On the day of President Trump's inauguration, as the price of $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme-coins had tanked - filling the timelines with sardonic "crime is now legal" comments and posts accusing the Trump family and associates of insider trading - the user with the handle @MickiCrossChain wrote:
"The busiest person in crypto for the next 4 years will be @zachxbt. Hope u get paid well brother."
To this, Zach replied, "One of my biggest regrets here is not prioritizing making money," lamenting his lack of business acumen.
Once the crypto community learned that its most savvy crime, fraud, and schemes detective had been working without due compensation, it promptly tried to help him in all sorts of ways, such as brainstorming on how to monetize Zach's skills or engaging in deep philosophical debates on the incentives structures of the crypto space.
On a more materialistic approach, two initiatives were created to get Zach some money.
Crypto financial advisor Joey Moosse created a donation wallet that raised $65 thousand before the private keys were given to Zachary the following morning.
The other financial initiative was the creation of a Justice for ZachXBT meme-coin, $ZACHXBT, by an unknown developer who sent half of the token's 1 billion supply to the crypto sleuth.
Zach added his tokens to a unilateral liquidity pool of the ZACHXBT/SOL pair on Raydium and then cashed out 91 million tokens and 16 thousand SOL from it before locking it.
When Zach removed part of the supply, users began to panic and sell the token, causing its market cap to tank from $88 million to about $5 million.
Despite not creating or promoting the token himself, the detective quickly started being accused of rug-pulling the meme-coin and scamming buyers.
This isn't the first time allegations against Zach have surfaced. Disgruntled scammers caught by the on-chain detective often pushed back against the conclusions of his investigations by accusing him of wrongdoing, but never with conclusive proof.
Zach himself has mostly stayed out of the matter, offering a polite "thank you" here and there and a sharp, cynical comment to those committed to dragging him through the mud.
His supporters and admirers were much more vocal about the situation: not only did they come together to support him financially, but they also publicly supported his decisions about the meme-coin.
Mostly, they have criticized those who were expecting to make money out of a token that was not meant to make money for traders but only for ZachXBT.
At a time when Ethereum and, especially, the Ethereum Foundation are under fire for, among other things, ETH's price not fulfilling traders' expectations, this controversy further accentuates the divide in the crypto community between those looking to make a quick profit and those wanting to develop and participate in a new, fairer, and decentralized economy.