The crypto market has been in a marathon in the past few days as manipulation and insider trading claims filled the air. The memecoin market was under scrutiny for insider trading, while Jane Street faced accusations of manipulation on Wall Street.
However, it is the ZachXBT exposé on insider trading that aroused much attention as participants rushed to place bets. This statement by the investigator could shape the next phase of memecoin trading as the sector continues to gain traction.
Thus, we will continue to build upon this exposé and analyze the response from Axiom, as well as some of the most notable bets.
ZachXBT was true to his word that he promised the community he would drop on the 26th of February, just a few days ago.
As per the crypto investigator ZachXBT, the Axiom employers were behind this insider trading. This action cleared doubt that had crept in against Meteora, Pumpfun, and other trading platforms.
The investigator alleged that employees who had access to internal tools executed these atrocities. He pointed out Broox Bauer alongside Ryan and Gowno, who had split responsibilities.
The issue was of concern, as this activity had been happening for more than a year since the beginning of 2025. They were tapping into the addresses of KOLs and savvy traders who were monitoring their activities. These KOLs included even those who had been accused of using their community to dump their tokens.
Axiom exposed for insider trading | Source: ZachXBT/X
Accompanying the claims were the company’s profits, which exceeded $390 million. Axiom was one of the most profitable in the industry for memecoin launchpads.
However, the exchange did respond to this exposé by the crypto investigator.
After the crypto investigator exposed Axiom Exchange’s insider trading, the company acknowledged its error and issued an apology. The company wrote on X, saying, “We are shocked and disappointed to hear that someone on our team abused internal customer support tools to look up user wallets.”
They put in new measures as they continued to do their internal investigations. Then they removed access to these tools and distanced this behavior from their team as a whole.
Company statement on the exposé | Source: Axiom/X
Axiom promised to hold those responsible accountable. And also they would be sharing updates as their investigations continue.
Such behavior put these protocols under tight watch, bearing in mind how the memecoin market was full of manipulation and insider trading. For instance, traders betting on celebrity coins saw the biggest loss last year, with that wave starting in late 2024.
The anticipation of this report made some traders walk away with big gains from Polymarket.
One trader made a profit of about $410K on a bet of about $66K. However, Lookonchain accused this trader of engaging in insider trading, as they placed the bet when Axiom’s odds were below 15%. That explained why the profits were huge.
Another set of two newly created wallets profited more than $109K from this trade in just a few hours. Lookonchain further revealed that about 12 wallets may have been involved in insider trading. These wallets made a total profit of more than $1 million.
Whale’s bet on Polymarket | Source: Lookonchain
Such developments showed how the crypto market had transformed, as participants were now betting on information provided by prediction markets. The accusations of insider trading, even in the exposé itself, demonstrated how far the crypto market was from eliminating this practice.
The post ZachXBT Exposes Axiom, Company Fires Back As Smart Money Bets Win Big appeared first on The Market Periodical.


