The Hyperliquid Foundation has donated 10,000 HYPE tokens, which are worth about $254,000, to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. According to ZachXBT, the donation is now the second-largest contribution he has received in institutional support from blockchain platforms. ZachXBT confirmed the donation through his Telegram channel on January 18, 2026, and also published an updated leaderboard of his top donors. Hyperliquid comes second, trailing only Optimism, but is ahead of other major blockchain projects, including Octant, The White Whale, Arbitrum, BNB Chain , Unipcs, Nouns, CL207, and High Stakes Capital, respectively. Why did Hyperliquid donate money to ZachXBT? Some see the contribution as a symbolic gesture from a DeFi platform towards an investigator who has previously exposed fraudulent activity on its own network. However, neither the Hyperliquid Foundation nor ZachXBT have shared any specific reason for the donation. ZachXBT is a pseudonymous blockchain investigator who is also an advisor at crypto investment firm, Paradigm. ZachXBT, who has maintained anonymity, relies on community donations and grants to fund his work and also fight litigation. His investigative methods involve tracing cryptocurrency flows across blockchain networks, using techniques such as address clustering to uncover hidden connections between wallets and expose fraud patterns. The investigator has helped track hundreds of millions of dollars across different cryptocurrency exploits, and his approach has positioned him as one of the industry’s most prominent fraud detectives. Recently, he spotlighted an incident that occurred on January 10, where a victim lost over $282 million worth of LTC and BTC due to a hardware wallet social engineering scam, as Cryptopolitan reported . According to ZachXBT, “The attacker began converting the stolen LTC & BTC to Monero via multiple instant exchanges, causing the XMR price to sharply increase. BTC was also bridged to Ethereum, Ripple, & Litecoin via Thorchain.” The investigator also shared the theft address. Does ZachBXT have any ties to Hyperliquid? The donation carries particular significance given ZachXBT’s investigative works involving Hyperliquid’s platform. In March 2025, ZachXBT uncovered an elaborate scam and the identity of the individual at the center of the scheme, which happened to be a high-profile trader on Hyperliquid’s decentralized exchange. The person behind the scam was William Parker, a UK national with a criminal history involving fraud and casino theft. At the time, ZachXBT’s investigation revealed that Parker’s trading wallet had received funds from victims of phishing scams and other potentially illicit sources. Parker had attracted attention after generating around $20 million through highly leveraged positions on Hyperliquid and GMX, including suspiciously well-timed trades ahead of major market announcements. Separately, ZachXBT flagged a $400,000 exploit involving stolen Hypurr NFTs from compromised wallets on the Hyperliquid network. He has also flagged and tracked fraudulent transactions from bad actors that have occurred on Hyperliquid’s platform, although it’s worth noting that his work is not limited to the platform. The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them .
