The Golden Age for Crypto Scammers: Why ZachXBT Sounds the Alarm

In a viral June 2025 thread, pseudonymous crypto investigator ZachXBT declared the industry is in a full-blown “crime supercycle.” The post, packed with first-hand insights and grim stats, didn’t just call out a spike in criminal activity – it outlined a structural breakdown. With enforcement weakening and new scam mechanics going mainstream, ZachXBT argued that there’s never been a better time to extract value from crypto by any means necessary. His warning hit a nerve for one reason: coming from ZachXBT, it didn’t feel exaggerated.

With nearly 870,000 followers on X and a reputation earned by exposing exploiters and tracing hacked funds, ZachXBT isn’t just another commentator; he’s become crypto’s most relentless on-chain detective. His blog-style Twitter exposés have forced exchanges to act, embarrassed influencers, and helped victims recover funds. This time, though, he wasn’t targeting a specific fraud or breach. He was diagnosing the entire market.

So why now? According to ZachXBT, 2025 offers the perfect storm. Major scam cases are being dropped. Meme coins have gone institutional. Influencers push fraud with impunity. Courts side with hackers. 

If you ever wanted the opportunity to extract from the industry, there’s not been much of a better time,

he wrote.

And the numbers back him up:

• $75–78 billion in USDT is circulating on Tron, the stablecoin’s largest network.
• $126 million in suspicious funds have been frozen by the Tether–Tron–TRM Labs task force.
• $26 billion in illicit crypto flows pass through Tron annually, per WSJ estimates.
• Over 14 million meme coins were launched this year on one platform (Pump Fun).
• North Korea’s Lazarus Group has stolen more than $5 billion in crypto since 2017.

How the Crime Supercycle Took Over

What makes 2025 different isn’t just the number of incidents – it’s how embedded they’ve become in the ecosystem. ZachXBT points to a convergence of factors:

• Politicians and celebrities launching meme coins with no disclosure.
• High-profile crypto crime cases getting dropped or ending without consequence.
• Exploits become easier to launder through small OTC brokers and bot-run trading platforms.
• A surge of activity on launchpads like Pump Fun, where meme coins now mint by the millions.
• Influencers and KOLs shilling scams without fear of repercussions.
• Courts increasingly siding with exploiters, citing outdated legal frameworks.

A number of teams sit and watch collecting fees doing nothing, when >50% of the activity for their protocol comes from stolen funds,

ZachXBT noted.

In short: the rules haven’t just failed—they’ve been repurposed.

Meet ZachXBT, the anonymous sleuth exposing billions in crypto fraud — uncover his methods, missions, and mysteries in our Personalities feature!

The Tron Black Market: Built for Speed, Used for Crime

Much of this activity funnels through one network: Tron. The blockchain hosts more USDT than any other and, according to the UN and WSJ, is now the preferred network for money laundering across Asia. Its appeal to criminals is simple: fast transactions, negligible fees, and a massive stablecoin pool.

As of May 2025, Tron accounts for over $75 billion in circulating USDT. Tether’s financial crime unit – formed with Tron and TRM Labs – has frozen $126 million in suspicious tokens, including funds tied to Lazarus Group’s attacks on Bybit, DMM Bitcoin, and WazirX. But that’s less than 0.2% of what’s moving through the network.

ZachXBT is careful to say Tron isn’t inherently bad. 

Tron itself is not the problem. The exact activity could have emerged on other chains like Ethereum or Solana. They just happened to become the default chain for stablecoin payments in a large part of the world.

Still, the current dynamics make Tron a magnet for illicit flows, and enforcement remains a game of catch-up.

ZachXBT uncovers the truth behind the Pump.fun hack — find out who’s behind the breach and what warnings he issued in our insights coverage!

Normalizing the Grift: Gambling, Shilling, and Shrugging It Off

ZachXBT also highlights a cultural shift: scams aren’t just tolerated—they’re embraced. 

Gambling is still one of the main use cases the industry has,

he wrote, reacting to the $700 million+ run-up on Pump Fun. 

With meme coins spinning up in seconds and sniper bots auto-buying newly launched tokens, the line between risk and scam has blurred beyond recognition.

Meanwhile, regulators have largely ignored influencer-driven fraud. ZachXBT estimates agencies could have collected $50–100 million in fines just for undisclosed paid promotions. Instead, enforcement falls on open-source developers and high-profile DeFi protocols, while influencers continue business as usual.

The sentiment was echoed by one commenter, who wrote, “Actually insane that scamming has become normalized and even praised,” ZachXBT concurred.

“They’ve [Lazarus Group] legit stolen $5B+ from the industry since 2017,” he noted. “How many teams went insolvent? How many victims left the space permanently? Not all of the damage you can quantify.”

BitoPro hacked for $11.5M — see how ZachXBT uncovered the breach and what the Taiwanese exchange revealed in our news coverage!

Even the Giants Are Vulnerable

On June 19, crypto VC titan a16z had its X account compromised. In a brief but damaging takeover, the account pushed a fake token to its massive following. The hack didn’t last long, but it proved ZachXBT’s point: the current wave of fraud isn’t just about obscure tokens or amateur phishing – it’s systemic.

In a cycle where everyone’s exposed and few are punished, even the most reputable players can be targets.

Scams Are the Business Model—For Now

ZachXBT’s post doesn’t offer an easy solution, but it does offer clarity: crypto’s current incentives reward extraction, not innovation. Until enforcement, culture, and infrastructure align to reward real builders, the industry’s biggest growth sector might just remain its grimiest.

In 2025, grifting isn’t a bug in the system. It’s the feature everyone sees – and few want to fix.