Investigator Reveals Year-long Insider Trading at Axiom DEX Platform

On Thursday, crypto investigator ZachXBT published an exposé in which he accused employees at Axiom decentralized exchange (DEX) of conducting insider trading since early 2025.

Insider traders at Axiom had access to sensitive user info

According to the ZachXBT report, Axiom staff members utilized their unrestricted access to internal company tools to conduct the fraud. The employees researched, tracked, and compiled financial information from the private wallets of key opinion leaders in the crypto industry. Several persons whose wallet information had been leaked via screenshots corroborated this narrative, as stated in the report.

The investigation further details a conspiracy involving an employee named “Broox”, where another co-conspirator was set to profit $200,000 from insider trading. ZachXBT notes that precise evidence of such happenings would require access to Axiom’s employee logs.

Axiom distances itself from wayward employees

Following its debut in 2024, Axiom quickly gained traction due to its focus on crypto meme coins and perpetuals. Its revenues to date are now over $390 million, and it is ranked the second-best revenue-generating dApp on Solana with $15.36 million in monthly revenue.

Source: DefiLlama

Regarding the recent investigation, Axiom has expressed disappointment in employee misconduct, adding that it has removed access to the tools enabling insider trading. 

On Polymarket, the title “Which crypto company will Zach XBT expose for insider trading?” saw $27.6 million in trading volume prior to the investigation’s release. One trader even made a $39K profit from the same, which ZachXBT said could be one of the investigation’s informants.

Elevated instances of crypto insider trading

The Axiom investigation is one among many that reveal potential insider trading within crypto platforms. Another prominent case is that of Jane Street, in which the company was accused of market manipulation and insider trading, leading to the Terra-Luna collapse.

Observers have pointed out the possibility of algorithmic 10:00 am dumps by the company, in addition to possible involvement in the October 10 flash crash. The latter shook the crypto industry, with the blame still shifting from Binance to Wintermute to some offshore macro hedge fund. However, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes the recent market volatility is just a classical crypto winter.