ZachXBT Traces $475K Changelly Freeze to Alleged Indian Scam Ring

• On-chain investigator ZachXBT said on June 19, 2026, that an X user who asked him to help unfreeze 5.73 BTC at Changelly instead exposed his own alleged links to a fraud network.
• The frozen Bitcoin, worth roughly $475,000, traces back to social engineering thefts targeting Americans through US exchanges and Bitcoin ATMs, with the broader cluster linked to over $1 million stolen since 2025.
• ZachXBT suspects the account holder, @Amankesar11, acted as a money mule for a New Delhi figure he identified as “Mr Parveen,” after the user’s documents surfaced bank statements under a different name.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT said on June 19, 2026, that an X user who direct-messaged him for help recovering frozen Bitcoin instead handed over evidence of an alleged Indian crypto scam ring. The user, operating under the handle @Amankesar11, complained that Changelly had “unjustly” frozen 5.73 BTC, worth about $475,000, since March 2025. ZachXBT described the episode as a short story about scammers who called the cops on themselves.

The complaint reached ZachXBT after months of public pressure on the exchange. The account holder had posted on June 15 that his swap of 5.7357 BTC into USDT through Changelly had stayed on hold since March 11, 2025, alleging the platform kept issuing “under review” updates despite his submitting full KYC and supporting documents. Rather than accept the framing, ZachXBT plotted the transaction in his compliance tools.

The on-chain trace pointed back to illicit sources. ZachXBT said the inflows came from social engineering thefts targeting American victims through US centralized exchanges and Bitcoin ATMs, naming platforms including Bitcoin Depot, Athena Bitcoin, Coinhub ATM, Cash App, Robinhood, Coinbase, and Strike. He said the wider cluster of addresses tied to the account showed high-confidence links to more than $1 million in thefts since 2025, with several victims identified as elderly. FBI data shows Americans filed over 181,000 cryptocurrency complaints in 2025, with losses topping $11 billion.

The account holder’s explanation shifted repeatedly during the exchange. He first described the funds as a loan, then said his boss had sent them, and later claimed his boss had invested in Bitcoin “during 2014 and 2015” through a friend in the United States. He also told ZachXBT he had filed a police report in India in December 2025 over the frozen funds, citing case number 3207-P/2025.

ZachXBT said the email screenshots the user shared gave him additional data points to map the group. He suspects @Amankesar11 functioned as a mule for a boss he identified as “Mr Parveen,” noting that the supposed proof included bank statements under a different name and location. He closed with a warning to anyone considering similar outreach. “While you can message me for help and I’ll respect your privacy, at least use common sense and don’t contact me with stolen funds,” ZachXBT wrote.

Changelly has not publicly commented on the case, and ZachXBT noted his findings remain pending further verification. The freeze fits a broader pattern of compliance-driven asset holds in India, where the Financial Intelligence Unit’s notices to 25 offshore crypto platforms named Changelly among the flagged services in October 2025.

Editorial Note: This news article has been written with assistance from AI. Edited & fact-checked by the Editorial Team.

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