Crypto Sleuth ZachXBT Fronted $350K to Pose as a Client of Lazarus' Chinese Launderers

Most on-chain sleuths trace stolen crypto from the sidelines. The pseudonymous ZachXBT says he wired $349,700 of his own money to the people moving it. "Posing as a client, I gathered intel that helped action freezes for the Feb 2025 Bybit exploit and attribute illicit activity onchain." he >wrote on X. ZachXBT explained the group was a Chinese gang working for North Korea. That exploit he is referencing caused $1.5 billion in losses to the crypto exchange Bybit. The FBI attributed the incident to North Korean hackers it tracks as TraderTraitor. The alleged launderers, ZachXBT says, were not exactly hiding. For those who don't spend their days on "Crypto Twitter" tracking the everyday goings on of crypto hacks and exploits, ZachXBT is likely the best-known and most prolific on-chain investigator in the space. The mostly pseudonymous 20-something-year-old has spent years tracing stolen crypto and naming the people behind scams and hacks. His threads lean on public blockchain data that anyone can check, and he's kept on with his investigations even after a former target sued and doxxed him in 2023. 1/ How I infiltrated a Chinese organized crime syndicate that has laundered $1B+ across multiple exploits for Lazarus Group. Posing as a client, I gathered intel that helped action freezes for the Feb 2025 Bybit exploit and attribute illicit activity onchain. pic.twitter.com/jauRRt8875 — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 5, 2026 "In Feb 2025, shortly after the $1.5B Bybit exploit attributed to the DPRK-linked group ‘TraderTraitor,' I observed a pattern of 15+ accounts asking for help with orders directly tied to stolen funds in public groups on Telegram and Discord," he wrote today in post on X. He saw the same thing last week after the $387 million Bitget hack, which Bitget's CEO and blockchain tracing firms Ellipic and Chainalysis have linked to North Korea. His North Korea record is pretty relevant. On the day of the Bybit hack, he connected it to Lazarus Group