In brief
- ZachXBT alleged that Axiom employees engaged in insider trading.
- The pseudonymous blockchain sleuth said a leak ahead of his findings was “probably inevitable.”
- Polymarket users picked Axiom as the likely firm ahead of the release, fueling further speculation over insider trading.
Multiple employees at Axiom, a non-custodial trading platform, engaged in insider trading, prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT alleged on Thursday.
The pseudonymous investigator claimed that Broox Bauer, who serves as a senior business development employee, was among those involved. He painted a picture on X of how Bauer allegedly abused access to internal tools to “look up sensitive user details to insider trade by tracking private wallet activity since early 2025.”
On X, Axiom said the conduct outlined in ZachXBT’s investigation is not representative of the company’s broader culture, promising to keep the public informed as it learns more.
“We are shocked and disappointed to hear that someone on our team abused internal customer support tools to look up user wallets,” it said. “We have removed access to these tools and will continue to investigate and hold the offending parties responsible.”
Decrypt has reached out to Axiom for comment.
Axion has generated $390 million in revenue since its debut in 2024, according to the sleuth, who said that he was retained to independently investigate the firm backed by accelerator Y Combinator.
Based in New York, Bauer allegedly said that he can track users on Axiom using a referral code, wallet address, or user identities, according to an audio clip that ZachXBT shared. Additional materials provided by the sleuth allegedly showed Bauer sharing private wallets connected to specific traders with others, which were accessed using Axiom’s internal tools.
A group of employees allegedly mapped out wallet addresses that were obtained by Bauer, linking them to influencers including “Frank” and “GCR.” In one instance, the group of employees identified an influencer that would purchase large amounts of a meme coin before promoting it to their followers, enabling them to notch profits as traders bought in, according to ZachXBT.
“Traders like Marcell are prime targets for this type of abuse since address reuse is less common and private wallets are rarely public, which makes privileged info much more valuable,” he said, in reference to the influencer.
ZachXBT described it as difficult to pinpoint specific examples of insider trading “due to the high volume of meme coin trades tied to related addresses” without access to Axiom’s internal logs. However, he provided a screenshot of several exchange balances allegedly tied to Bauer, showing around $300,000 in funds.
In recent years, ZachXBT’s investigations have garnered widespread attention within the cryptosphere, functioning as a novel accountability mechanism. Sharpening his abilities to map illicit activity across webs of wallet addresses since 2021, ZachXBT in September outlined a $240 million theft that he’d investigated—a day after two of its subjects were placed in handcuffs.
Speculation abounded on Monday after the investigator teased on X that his most recent work centered on “one of the most profitable businesses in crypto.” The associated post has generated more than 11 million views.
The curiosity fueled millions of dollars in trading volume on prediction market platforms like Polymarket. On Wednesday, Solana-based decentralized finance application Meteora stood as the most likely candidate, followed by “Other” and trading terminal Axiom. However, in the lead-up to ZachXBT’s Thursday X thread, Axiom emerged as a frontrunner.
On Myriad, a prediction market platform owned by Decrypt parent company Dastan, traders penciled in only an 8% chance on Wednesday that ZachXBT would levy allegations against Binance, Coinbase, Upbit, OKX, or Bybit.
ZachXBT acknowledged that “prediction market bros” were pestering him for answers in the lead-up to his investigation’s release. He also described leaks as “probably inevitable,” given that the case required him to interview a few people.
Meteora co-founder Zhen Hoe Yong, who goes by “Zen,” said on X prior to the release of ZachXBT’s findings that he was “surprised” to see the project emerge as a frontrunner on Polymarket. He said the project takes insider trading seriously and has put safeguards in place.
“We immediately did a detailed review of the situation,” Zen said. “After review, we remain confident in the way we handle integrations, launches, and the standards we hold ourselves to.”
Some users responded by imploring Zen to bet against Polymarket’s leading outcome.
On X, some users speculated that there may have been insider trading tied to the investigation about insider trading, pointing to one Polymarket user named “Anon” in particular.
The account had placed a flurry of wagers on which company ZachXBT would name, generating more than $160,000 in profits, as of Thursday.
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