Crypto Sleuth ZachXBT Exposes Ansem for Alleged Memecoin Manipulation

YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Blockchain investigator Zachary Wolk, known online as ZachXBT, publicly accused crypto influencer Zion “Ansem” Thomas of promoting a series of low market cap memecoins to his large following. In an Oct. 5 exchange on X , Wolk criticized Thomas for what he called a “pump and dump” approach. He claims that Thomas was using his influence to artificially inflate coin prices.

ZachXBT Challenges Ansem’s Influence Over Low Cap Memecoins

Wolk’s accusations centered on Thomas’ promotion of Solana-based memecoins, claiming that Thomas exploited his large following of over 507,000 users to manipulate prices. According to Wolk, Thomas’ actions could result in significant losses for his followers. He noted that smaller coins are particularly sensitive to market movements driven by prominent figures.

“If you resort to promoting new low cap memecoins every few days to followers as a large account, it’s [because] you have no edge and have to use your followers instead,”

Wolk argued. He referenced several tokens Thomas had allegedly promoted, including BODEN, HOBBES, and WYNN, all of which have seen their values plummet.

Thomas Defends His Promotion of Memecoins

In response, Thomas questioned why promoting “lowcaps” was labeled as “grifting” and defended his support for these coins.

He highlighted Dogwifhat (WIF) as an example, which had a market cap of $100,000 at the time of his promotion and later surged to $4.8 billion in March. Thomas compared his promotion of WIF to other tokens, including Chainlink (LINK), which is down 90% against Bitcoin year-to-date.

“The ‘low cap garbage’ you talk about has dominated 90% of retail mindshare in crypto over the past year,”

Thomas said, pointing out that memecoins had been highly popular among traders. However, critics argue that such promotions can lead to heavy losses for retail investors who may not fully understand the risks involved with these volatile assets.

BODEN and Other Memecoins Experience Massive Declines

Many of the coins ZachXBT mentioned have seen sharp declines in value. For example, BODEN, a memecoin themed around President Joe Biden, is down almost 99% from its all-time high of $1.04 billion in April, according to CoinGecko. Similarly, HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN have all dropped by approximately 98% from their peaks, confirming the risks associated with such low-cap coins.

This public exchange has brought further attention to the ongoing debate surrounding memecoins. Advocates argue that tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), and WIF have delivered outsized returns compared to more traditional utility tokens. Critics, however, claim that these coins are primarily designed to benefit early investors at the expense of retail participants.

Above all, the role of memecoins in the crypto market remains a contentious issue. While some investors see them as high-risk, high-reward opportunities, others argue that they are structurally worthless and primarily serve to extract value from uninformed investors.