Just In: Machi Big Brother Drops Defamation Suit Against ZachXBT

According to an August 14th post on X (formerly Twitter), Jeffrey Huang popularly known as “Machi Big Brother” has dropped the defamation suit against renowned crypto sleuth ZachXBT. 

Machi Big Brother Salutes ZachXBT

Justifying his reasons for dropping the suit, Machi Big Brother acknowledged that ZachXBT had made some necessary amendments to the article he claimed defamed his character, a gesture he appreciates. Both parties have decided to drop the matter and forge ahead.

The popular Non-fungible token (NFT) whale pointed out that ZachXBT had made immense contributions to the crypto community in the past. As such, the decision to pursue legal action against him was not “the right path” rather, it was a last resort. 

I am withdrawing my defamation suit against @zachxbt.

Zach has many times in the past been of great service to the crypto community and pursuing legal action against him was a last resort but not the right path.

I appreciate that Zach has made important amendments to his…

— Machi Big Brother (@machibigbrother) August 14, 2023

ZachXBT also confirmed that the lawsuit has been dropped although he claimed to be surprised that the matter had to go down the legal route. At the same time, the online detective appreciates that a resolution has been reached. 

In response to the article “22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang)” published in June 2022, Machi Big Brother decided to pursue a legal action against ZachXBT exactly one year after. The latter was accused of defamation but he was quick to tag the lawsuit as baseless and an attempt to stifle free speech. 

In the said article, ZachXBT talked about some financial improprieties and the failure of multiple projects associated with Machi Big Brother. Just like the title of the article reads, the crypto sleuth claimed that Huang embezzled 22,000 Ethereum from Formosa Financial, a crypto management firm.

Huang’s lawsuit argued that the claims were categorically false. Many perceived the lawsuit as a show of power dynamics in the sense that Machi was using his enormous wealth to intimidate a detective who lacked comparable financial capabilities.

The Support for ZachXBT’s Legal Defense

Taking cognizance of the financial burden that the legal battle would come with, ZachXBT created a donation address to seek contributions from members of the crypto community when the suit was filed. The expected expenses came in at around $1 million.

TRON founder Justin Sun made a handsome donation of 10,000 TUSD to ZachXBT and in the end, the crypto community was able to raise more than $500,000 for the detective’s legal defense.

With the latest development on the suit, unused funds donated to him in the course of the legal battle would be returned, per a statement from ZachXBT.