Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has accused Garden Finance — a platform that touts itself as “the fastest Bitcoin bridge” — of helping launder funds tied to major crypto hacks, including the recent Bybit breach.
In a June 21 post on X, ZachXBT alleged that more than 80% of Garden Finance’s recent fee revenue originated from illicit transactions linked to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
The claims were made in response to an earlier post by Garden Finance co-founder Jaz Gulati, who highlighted the platform’s growth, noting it had collected 38.86 Bitcoin in fees — with $300,000 earned over just 12 days ending June 2.
“You conveniently left out >80% of your fees came from Chinese launderers moving Lazarus Group funds from the Bybit hack,” ZachXBT wrote.
Laundering Through Centralized Liquidity Pools
ZachXBT also claimed that a single entity was repeatedly replenishing cbBTC liquidity on Garden Finance using Coinbase, effectively enabling illicit transactions despite the platform’s claims of being trustless and decentralized.
“Explain how it is ‘decentralized’ when I watched in real time for multiple days as a single entity kept topping up cbBTC liquidity from Coinbase,” ZachXBT wrote, challenging the legitimacy of Garden’s decentralization narrative.
In response, Garden Finance founder Jaz Gulati denied the allegations, emphasizing that 30 BTC in fees had been earned before the Bybit hack. He dismissed ZachXBT’s claims as misinformation, rejecting the “fake decentralized” label as unfounded.
Garden Finance promotes itself as a cross-chain bridge that enables swaps within 30 seconds and without custody risks.
According to data from its Dune Analytics dashboard, the platform has processed over 24,984 BTC in total volume — more than $1.5 billion — across 40,571 atomic swaps. To date, it has generated 40.11 BTC in fees, with its largest single swap reaching 10 BTC.
Crypto Founder Accused of Laundering $530 Million
Last week, Iurii Gugnin, founder of crypto payments company Evita Pay, was arrested in New York and hit with 22 federal charges linked to a massive money laundering operation allegedly involving over $530 million.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Gugnin enabled stablecoin transactions that helped clients tied to sanctioned Russian banks—including Sberbank and VTB—evade restrictions and access sensitive U.S. technologies.
Prosecutors allege the scheme ran from June 2023 to January 2025. Gugnin now faces charges including wire fraud, money laundering, and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. If convicted, he could face a life sentence.
