Crypto sleuth ZachXBT has accused a former skilled gamer and cybersecurity analyst of serving to steal $3.5 million from quite a few memecoins scams. The on-chain detective’s investigation unveiled a connection between the Australian man and 9 crypto hacks.
Former Professional Gamer Turned Crypto Scammer
On Wednesday, ZachXBT alleged that former skilled Fortnite participant Serpent helped steal and gambled the funds from a number of memecoin scams orchestrated this 12 months. In an X risk, the crypto detective uncovered the connection between wallets linked to Serpent and people tied to the crypto scams.
The investigator defined that some wallets associated to the previous professional gamer had “excessive publicity” to addresses concerned in a number of X and Instagram account takeovers (ATOs) in the previous couple of months.
These embody the hacks of McDonald’s and Kabosu Proprietor’s Instagram accounts and the takeover of Usher, Wiz Khalifa, Andy Ayrey, SPX 6900, and three different X accounts. The hacks noticed the theft of $3.5 million from unsuspected traders that purchased the rip-off memecoins launched on Solana’s token launchpad Pump.enjoyable.
Hacks allegedly related to Serpent. Supply: ZachXBT
As an illustration, McDonald’s pretend token, GRIMACE, reached a market capitalization of $25 million earlier than the hacker rug-pulled, sending round $700,000 to 2 wallets. The on-chain information analyzed confirmed that these two addresses had hyperlinks to different wallets concerned within the different eight scams, which moved the ill-gotten funds by means of a collection of transfers that ended at a on line casino deposit deal with, Ecb5vs.
The crypto detective famous that Serpent launched in March 2024 a venture named ERROR. Per the submit, this venture rug-pulled and bought the previous professional gamer banned from X. Nonetheless, the ERROR deployer despatched 23 ETH in October to 2 instantaneous exchanges, acquired on the identical on line casino deposit deal with.
ZachXBT identified that Serpent “gambles hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on Roobet, Stake, BC Recreation, and Shuffle every month, ceaselessly display screen sharing with mates on Discord.” Screenshots obtained by the on-chain sleuth confirmed that Serpent gambled no less than over $300,000 in a single single day this month.
Serpent’s Historical past Of Alleged Scams
Including to the accusations, the submit detailed that the previous pro-Fortnite participant was launched from the esports group Time beyond regulation in June 2020 after allegedly being caught dishonest.
In 2022, he co-founded the NFT venture DAPE, which was additionally rug-pulled, based on ZachXBT. Serpent claimed to be a cyber safety analyst “specializing in advertising and marketing and safety” and to be growing Sentinel, the “first-ever anti-mass dm.”
For the reason that investigator’s report, the accused has deleted all posts from his X account and adjusted his title and profile image. Primarily based on this, the crypto detective suspects potential hyperlinks to different ATOs he hasn’t related but.
Serpent's X account modifications. Supply: ZachXBT
It’s price noting that the memecoin sector and the Solana-based launchpad used for Serpent’s alleged scams have been beneath fireplace for the latest controversial livestream saga, reigniting discussions across the cycle’s high narrative.
As reported by Bitcoinist, Pump.enjoyable confronted backlash for “permitting” the misuse of its dwell streaming characteristic to advertise newly created memecoin utilizing dangerous, violent, and regarding ways.
This incident quickly shut down the platform’s dwell streaming possibility. Furthermore, trade figures like Changpeng Zhao entered the dialog relating to memecoins utility, calling the favored tokens “a bit of bizarre” and urging the group to deal with constructing “actual blockchain” initiatives.
Nonetheless, the tokens seemingly proceed to be many traders’ primary choose, with new web sensations reaching huge milestones amid the memecoin craze and the market’s bullish rally.
Solana (SOL) is buying and selling at $236 within the weekly chart. Supply: SOLUSDT on TradingView
Featured Picture from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com