Zebec ZBCN Buyback: 40.5M Tokens Held, Not Burned, as Supply Stays Unchanged

Zebec says it bought back 40.5 million ZBCN in the third quarter and is keeping them “out of circulation.”

On-chain, those tokens didn’t reach Zebec’s buyback treasury wallet during the quarter. They arrived on October 21, three weeks after Q3 ended, the same day Zebec announced the buyback, sent from what Solscan labels a Crypto.com hot wallet.

The amount matches Zebec’s claim almost to the token. But the wallet’s history also shows something “out of circulation” doesn’t usually suggest: it has moved 59 million ZBCN out before. Let’s go through the wallet to check what Zebec’s buyback claim actually covers.

Zebec Reports a $100,000 Q3 Buyback

Zebec Network announced on October 21, in an X post, that it repurchased 40,536,539 ZBCN in Q3 for about $100,000. That implies an average price of roughly $0.00247. The money came from Zebec Cards and payroll fees across Zebec Enterprise and the SuperApp.

Zebec’s explainer, Inside the ZBCN Buyback Program, says buybacks are “funded by operating revenue” from payroll, payments, cards and related services, not from treasury reserves. That’s a real point in Zebec’s favor.

The scale is small. ZBCN has a 100 billion maximum supply, so 40.5 million tokens is about 0.04% of it.

Out of Circulation Is Not the Same as Burned

Zebec says the repurchased tokens “will not re-enter circulation.” They weren’t burned. ZBCN’s total supply is exactly the same as it was before the buyback.

That’s a deliberate policy. The program began in 2023 under the old ZBC token and originally included burns. In early 2024, the Zebec DAO approved ZIP-4, which paused burns while keeping recurring buybacks. Zebec says the DAO expects to decide by the end of 2026 whether to propose bringing burns back. Governance happens through the Zebec DAO portal.

The practical difference matters. A burn permanently destroys tokens. “Out of circulation” depends on Zebec continuing to hold them and on data providers leaving them out of circulating supply. The blockchain doesn’t enforce either one.

What the Treasury Wallet Shows

Zebec’s blog says repurchased tokens are held “in the designated on-chain Buyback Treasury Wallet and with Uphold Institutional,” but doesn’t give the address. The account linked with the announcement is EkXEg6de172aoLvr7w86YzQ2rf5oEFD3iUt8uQsLQuQW. ZBCN’s Solana mint address is ZBCNpuD7YMXzTHB2fhGkGi78MNsHGLRXUhRewNRm9RU.

As of October 22, Solscan shows the wallet holding 108,256,701.48 ZBCN, worth about $246,157 at $0.002273.

The Q3 check passes. On October 21 at about 14:11 UTC, the wallet received two ZBCN transfers from an address Solscan labels “Crypto.com Hot Wallet”:

• 40,533,540.77 ZBCN, about $96,536 at the time
• 1,683.33 ZBCN, about $4

Together, that’s 40,535,224.09 ZBCN, just 1,315 ZBCN (about $3) short of Zebec’s figure. That’s a 99.997% match. The small difference is likely due to fees or rounding.

One detail stands out: the account is off-curve. Solscan shows “isOnCurve: FALSE,” which means the address is derived by a program and has no private key of its own. Accounts like this are usually controlled by a program such as a multisig, so moving tokens requires that program’s approval. That’s a better setup than a single person’s wallet, but it isn’t a lock.

The Q3 Tokens Arrived After the Quarter Ended

The timing shows how the program works. The wallet’s transfer history suggests a repeating pattern, with each batch arriving after its quarter has ended:

• About April 18, 2026: 19,227,014 ZBCN
• About July 21, 2026: about 48,494,463 ZBCN, mostly from the same Crypto.com-labeled hot wallet
• October 21, 2026: 40,535,224 ZBCN, the Q3 batch

Those three batches add up to the wallet’s current balance within 0.01 ZBCN. So the “buyback treasury” holds the last three quarters of deliveries and nothing else.

This means that during each quarter, the purchased tokens weren’t in the on-chain treasury. The pattern points to buying on an exchange, with tokens sitting in an exchange account until they’re withdrawn to the treasury around announcement time. The chain doesn’t show when the Q3 purchases actually happened, so for July 1 to September 30, the “$100,000 Q3 buyback” can’t be checked on-chain. Only the October 21 delivery can.

That’s common practice and not a sign of wrongdoing. But it means the on-chain record confirms delivery, not the purchases themselves.

The Wallet Has Moved Tokens Out Before

If the balance only covers the last three batches, what happened to earlier buybacks? The transfer history answers that, too. The wallet has sent ZBCN out twice, both times to the same address, shown on Solscan as 9Sq2nZ...4TEine:

• About one year ago: 15,196,804.86 ZBCN out
• About January 2026: 43,768,798.38 ZBCN out, three days after receiving 43,758,798.38 + 10,000 ZBCN from another address, which means the whole amount passed straight through

That’s about 58.97 million ZBCN moved out of a wallet described as holding tokens that “will not re-enter circulation.”To be fair, Zebec says tokens are “periodically consolidated with Uphold Institutional for custody,” and these outflows may be exactly that. There’s no confirmation that 9Sq2nZ...4TEine belongs to Uphold. Once tokens leave this wallet, readers can’t follow them using Zebec’s disclosures. These transfers also show what a burn would prevent: tokens in this wallet can, and do, move.

What Would Turn the Claim Into Proof

The Q3 claim holds up better than I expected. The wallet received almost exactly 40.5 million ZBCN, and the balance reconciles to the token. What the chain can’t show is when the tokens were bought, or where earlier buybacks are now.

Three disclosures would close those gaps:

• Publish the exchange trade records or dates for each quarter’s purchases, not just the delivery transfer.
• Identify the destination address and confirm whether 9Sq2nZ...4TEine is Uphold Institutional, ideally with a custodian attestation of the total held.
• Use a time-locked contract or a burn address if the DAO revisits ZIP-4 before the end of the year, so “won’t re-enter circulation” becomes enforceable instead of a policy.

For now, Zebec did buy and deliver its Q3 tokens, and the supply is the same as it was before.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on X @nulltxnews