ZachXBT Accuses Kraken of Lax Due Diligence on Memecore

Blockchain analyst ZachXBT accused Kraken of lax due diligence after the exchange added Memecore ($M) to its spot listing on July 3, 2025. He pointed to on-chain transfers of about $7.9 million from Kraken-related wallets to 18 newly created withdrawal addresses soon after the listing and to data showing insiders controlled roughly 99.6% of circulating $M supply.

ZachXBT’s thread identified 11.7 million $M tokens in the 18 withdrawal accounts, which he valued at roughly $39.8 million at the time. He highlighted a wallet believed to belong to a Memecore team member, 0x6f1f0a1ccc76d2d292249b19c19e401f0e843ba9, that received 200 million $M at the token generation event and moved 5.3 million $M to two Kraken deposit addresses.

On-chain visualizations cited in the posts showed transfers from Kraken hot wallets to clusters of withdrawal addresses. The research indicated insiders and related wallets held about 99.6% of the circulating supply, leaving roughly 0.0115% of total supply available to non-insider holders-an amount ZachXBT estimated at about $4 million at peak valuations.

Memecore’s market capitalization reached about $6 billion at one point and fully diluted valuations exceeded $18 billion at times, while on-chain liquidity for the token remained limited. According to the posts, Kraken was among the few exchanges still offering spot trading for $M when the allegations were made.

ZachXBT criticized the project’s public metrics, writing: “In recent posts, the only achievement the team has shared is $66M total volume on a launchpad and thousands of ‘users’ from its incentivized InfoFi campaigns.” He has urged removal of InfoFi-related projects from social platforms.

Kraken’s parent company, Payward, confirmed it supported Operation Atlantic, a law enforcement initiative led by the UK’s National Crime Agency with partners including the U.S. Secret Service, Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission. The operation ran in March 2026 and targeted approval-phishing schemes that trick victims into authorizing malicious smart contracts.

Payward said it contributed data, sent staff to the NCA’s London office, notified Kraken clients who might have been affected and responded to law enforcement requests. Investigators reported identifying more than 20,000 potential victims across the UK, U.S. and Canada, uncovering over $45 million linked to criminal activity and seizing more than $12 million in assets.

Private-sector partners including blockchain analytics firms and a stablecoin issuer assisted investigators by tracing funds to prevent laundering. Reports indicate other exchanges cooperated with the operation; one large exchange joined law enforcement efforts but did not freeze accounts on its centralized platform, and another exchange participated in the private-sector collaboration.

The allegations from ZachXBT prompted debate within the crypto community about exchange listing practices and the difference between public anti-fraud cooperation and the assets exchanges choose to list.