On February 26, the blockchain investigator ZachXBT, released the results of his investigation into Axiom exchange, revealing insider trading.
ZachXBT shared data obtained from Axion senior BD employee Broox Bauer, revealing that multiple employees allegedly abused the lack of access controls for internal tools to look up sensitive user details to insider trade.
The insider trading has reportedly been possible by tracking private wallet activity since early 2025.
The crypto industry has been waiting for this research since ZachXBT first revealed information about the upcoming investigation on February 23.
His previous X post triggered market volatilty, speculation in the industry, and gained over 10.5 million views.
Here are the key details of the Axiom insider trading investigation and the exchange's response on X.
Key Axiom investigation details
Axiom is a crypto trading platform that was founded by Mist & Cal in 2024. ZachXBT noted that after the company went through Y-Combinator's Winter 2025 batch, it became one of the most profitable companies in the crypto space, generating almost $390 million in revenue.
Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch aka W25 was a startup accelerator program where selected early-stage startups received funding, mentorhip and investor access.
ZachXBT began his investigation of Axiom misconduct allegations after receiving reports.
Axiom employer revealed user tracking on the platform
He mentioned the current senior BD at Axiom in New York, Broox, who stated via a recording from a private call of the group members that he can track everything about any user on the platform via ref code, wallet, or UID.
Broox first researched 10-20 wallets and then increased the number over time to avoid suspicion. In the call, he also set ground rules for how to request lookups, telling the other members that he'll send the full wallet list.
In April and August 2025, Broox shared screenshots from an internal Axiom dashboard displaying private wallets for two traders.
The screenshot shows the registration wallet and connected user wallets.
According to the data, Broox also discussed lookups of Axiom users who traded a specific meme coin, AURA.
Other exchange employees who abused internal data were mentioned as well.
KOLs confirmed data from leaked screenshots
ZachXBT also revealed that the group from Axiom compiled lists of multiple KOL targets via Google Sheet, mapping out wallet addresses gathered via the internal Axiom dashboard by Broox.
The investigator said that multiple KOLs who were contacted have confirmed the accuracy of the wallet data attributed to them.
One KOL, Marcell, was a trader with a poor reputation for using X and Telegram followers as exit liquidity. He was targeted after bundling meme coins from private wallets before promoting them to users.
ZachXBT highlighted that such KOLs are the main targets of such abuse since:
- Address reuse is less common
- Private wallets are rarely public
Axiom employee's main wallet identification
Broox's main wallet was reportedly identified via messages from a private chat, and all addresses that were directly related were mapped out.
These addresses showed a high volume of meme coin trades. The timing of the trades placed requires access to Axiom's internal logs, and his wallet addresses alone were not enough.
ZachXBT revealed the funds' trajectory, flowing into several CEXs without mentioning which ones.
Employees made profits from insider trading
Broox himself shared screenshots of his exchange balances, suggesting that his scheme had generated returns.
The crypto investigator also said that during the February 2026 call, Broox shared a plan to help another employee gain $200,000 by abusing his access at Axiom. He conducted such activity with others as well since early 2025.
Final results and Axiom's official statement
ZachXBT said that he has investigated the alleged misconduct independently, and these findings are the results of his research:
- Insider trading by abusing internal data
- Little to no monitoring or access controls are in place to mitigate the abuse
- BD roles could easily access internal data via dashboards, including wallet info, names, transaction history, and linked accounts
He reached out to the exchange for comment and said that Axiom co-founders should further investigate the abuse and consider legal action against all employees involved.
The onchain investigator also said that the case falls under SDNY's jurisdiction and they should investigate it.
ZachXBT got the same response from Axiom as the X message that the exchange shared earlier:
ZachXBT's previous announcement led to traders placing bets on Polymarket about the potential crypto project analyzed by the blockchain investigator. Names including PumpFun, Meteora, MEXC, World Liberty Financial, and Axiom emerged as potential candidates. It seems that Axiom was the "winner."
Traders made profits speculating on Polymarket, creating volatility in the crypto market and leading to a cascade of price drops for multiple projects in the industry.
UPDATE: Axiom CEO, Mist, also addressed the issue via X, explaining that the insiders' access has been immediately revoked and the company has implemented additional safeguards to prevent this from happening again.
Mist clarified that user wallets are not compromised and remain secure, promissing further review of the incident.
