Crypto sleuth ZachXBT has accused a former professional gamer and cybersecurity analyst of stealing $3.5 million from numerous memecoin scams. The on-chain detective’s investigation revealed a link between the Australian man and nine crypto hacks.
Former professional gamer turned crypto scammer
On Wednesday, ZachXBT claimed that former professional Fortnite player helped Serpent steal and gambled the money from several memecoin scams orchestrated this year. In an X-threat, the crypto detective exposed the connection between wallets linked to Serpent and wallets linked to the crypto scam.
The researcher explained that some wallets related to the former pro gamer had “high exposure” to addresses involved in several X and Instagram account takeovers (ATOs) in recent months.
These include the hacks of the McDonald’s and Kabosu Owner Instagram accounts and the takeover of Usher, Wiz Khalifa, Andy Ayrey, SPX 6900 and three other X accounts. The hacks saw $3.5 million stolen from unsuspected investors who bought the scam memecoins launched on Solana’s token launch platform Pump.fun.
Hacks allegedly connected to Serpent. Source: ZachXBT
For example, McDonald’s fake token GRIMACE reached a market cap of $25 million before the hacker pulled the rug and sent around $700,000 to two wallets. The data analyzed on the chain showed that these two addresses had links to other wallets involved in the other eight scams, where the ill-gotten funds were obtained through a series of transfers which ended at a casino deposit address, Ecb5vs.
The crypto detective noted that Serpent launched a project called ERROR in March 2024. According to the post, this project was rejected and the former pro gamer was banned from X. However, the ERROR implementer sent ETH to two direct exchanges on October 23, received at the same casino deposit address.
ZachXBT pointed out that Serpent “gambles millions of dollars every month on Roobet, Stake, BC Game and Shuffle, and regularly shares his screen with friends on Discord.” Screenshots obtained by the chain sleuth showed Serpent gambling at least $300,000 in one day this month.
Serpent’s history of alleged scams
Adding to the allegations, the post detailed that the former pro Fortnite player was released from esports organization Overtime in June 2020 after allegedly being caught cheating.
In 2022, he co-founded the NFT project DAPE, which was also implemented, according to ZachXBT. Serpent claimed to be a cybersecurity analyst “specialized in marketing and security” and to develop Sentinel, the “first ever anti-mass DM.”
Since the investigation report, the suspect has deleted all messages from his X account and changed his name and profile photo. Based on this, the crypto detective suspects possible links to other ATOs that he has not yet connected to.
Serpent's X account changes. Source: ZachXBT
It’s worth noting that the memecoin sector and the Solana-based launch pad used for the alleged Serpent scam have come under fire due to the recent controversial livestream saga, which has reignited discussions surrounding the cycle’s main story.
If reported by Bitcoinist, Pump.fun faced backlash for “allowing” misuse of its live streaming feature to promote newly created memecoin using harmful, violent and worrying tactics.
This incident temporarily disabled the platform’s livestream option. Additionally, industry figures such as Changpeng Zhao joined the conversation about the usefulness of memecoins. They called the popular tokens “a bit weird” and urged the community to focus on building “real blockchain” projects.
However, the tokens still seem to be the number one choice of many investors new internet sensations achieving huge milestones amid the memecoin craze and the market’s bullish rally.
Solana (SOL) is trading at $236 in the weekly chart. Source: SOLUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com