Crypto Detective Strikes Again: Who Did He Catch This Time?
Renowned on-chain investigator ZachXBT released his latest report on Thursday, officially naming the cryptocurrency exchange Axiom, accusing its employees of abusing internal tools to secretly track user wallets, and even turning these confidential data into trading advantages to profit from buying and selling cryptocurrencies. Earlier, ZachXBT had hinted at exposing an insider trading case, sparking speculation within the crypto community for days, and now the truth has finally come to light.
Axiom was founded in 2024 by pseudonymous founders “Mist” and “Cal,” and successfully joined the Y Combinator winter batch of 2025, one of Silicon Valley’s top accelerators. To date, its revenue has exceeded $390 million.
ZachXBT stated that he was commissioned by multiple informants to investigate whether Axiom’s internal tools were being misused, but he did not disclose the identity of the commissioning parties.
In the report, ZachXBT accused Broox Bauer, a senior business development manager at Axiom based in New York, of using internal customer service system permissions to access private user wallet data, including wallet addresses, full transaction histories, and other sensitive information. According to audio recordings cited in the investigation, Broox Bauer claimed he could track any Axiom user through referral codes, wallet addresses, or user IDs. He also described how he “gradually” searched these wallets and mentioned he would “slowly look into it” so it wouldn’t seem suspicious.
While on-chain transactions are inherently transparent and anyone can check fund flows, most market participants can only see wallet addresses and cannot identify the person behind them. However, once internal information is used to match specific addresses with real user identities and account data, it effectively opens the door to “de-anonymization.”
Tracking well-known traders, crypto influencers (KOLs), or whales’ transactions and leveraging “information asymmetry” to profit or avoid losses constitutes insider trading, such as:
Compiling “Crypto KOL Wallet Lists” and scheming to profit using internal tools
ZachXBT further revealed that Broox Bauer allegedly leaked screenshots of Axiom’s internal dashboard, exposing specific traders’ wallet addresses, and even helped compile a “private wallet list of crypto KOLs.” ZachXBT emphasized that multiple victims whose wallet data was leaked confirmed the accuracy of these disclosures.
He also mentioned that Broox Bauer conspired with accomplices to exploit “privileged access” for trading profits, even planning a scheme to help another Axiom team member profit $200,000 by abusing internal tools.
ZachXBT stated he has identified Broox Bauer’s main wallets and related addresses; however, he admitted that to fully confirm these wallets’ involvement in specific insider trading activities, internal logs from Axiom would need to be reviewed.
Axiom responds: Access to related tools has been revoked
In response, Axiom issued a statement to ZachXBT, acknowledging the allegations and stating that they have taken measures:
“We are shocked and disappointed that someone on our team abused internal customer service tools to spy on user wallets. We have revoked access to these tools and will continue investigating to hold the violator accountable.”
Axiom emphasized, “This does not represent the actions of our entire team. We always prioritize our users. We will update further developments on our official X account.”
ZachXBT pointed out that before the report was published, he had contacted Axiom and described the company’s internal permission controls as “relatively lax,” with employees able to easily view extensive wallet and transaction data in the backend. He also mentioned that since the involved employee is based in the U.S., the case may fall under U.S. jurisdiction.
Side story: Market prediction sparks betting frenzy, mysterious trader profits $39,000
Earlier this week, when ZachXBT announced he would expose an insider trading case, it triggered a speculative frenzy on prediction markets. On Polymarket, a contract titled “Which crypto company will ZachXBT expose for insider trading?” had a total trading volume of $27.6 million, with traders heavily betting on platforms like Axiom, Meteora, Pump.fun, and others.
Meanwhile, on-chain analysts detected unusual trading patterns. According to Lookonchain, an anonymous trader placed a bet of over $50,000 on Axiom being named in the report, with relatively low odds, and then closed the position within a day, easily earning $39,000 in profit.
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