Update (Feb. 26 at 7:33 pm UTC): This article was updated to include a statement from Meteora.
Users of prediction market Polymarket who wagered on which firm on‑chain investigator ZachXBT would expose were rewarded after he published his findings to his 977,500 followers on X. In a Thursday post, ZachXBT named Axiom employee Broox Bauer and others, alleging they had engaged in insider trading “since early 2025.” He said Bauer used internal tools “to lookup sensitive user details to insider trade by tracking private wallet activity,” and posted audio clips in which a person ZachXBT identified as Bauer claimed he could track user wallet activity.
Axiom replied on X that it was “shocked and disappointed,” saying it had revoked access to the implicated tools, would continue its own investigation and would hold any offending parties responsible. “This does not represent us as a team, we have always tried to put the user first,” the company wrote.
Ahead of ZachXBT’s revelation, traders placed heavy wagers trying to predict whom he would name, with nearly $40 million in total bets on related markets. One Polymarket user who made multiple bets on a related contract reportedly netted about $400,000 in profit. More than $9.7 million changed hands on the platform’s “Which crypto company will ZachXBT expose for insider trading?” contract, and many bettors ended up winning after the disclosure.
Before the post, much of the community had speculated the target might be decentralized liquidity platform Meteora. A Meteora spokesperson told Cointelegraph the episode “was a reminder of why transparency and strong operational controls matter” and said the platform had “evolved a lot” since 2025.
The incident arrives amid growing regulatory focus on prediction markets in the U.S. Last week Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig said the CFTC has “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets, rejecting state-level efforts to regulate platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi and warning that state challenges would be litigated.
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