When XBT first contacted me, there was nothing particularly unusual about it. The account was called “XBT Nico.” Nico introduced himself as a sales representative responsible for marketing at XBT, also known as Xiangtan Bio Tech. He wanted an interview and a place in my “promotional catalogue” As usual, I asked for COAs, stock photographs, factory footage, customer reviews and contact details before sending over my questions.
Nico explained that XBT was new, had few customer reviews and had sent samples to “a lab called Janoshik.” When I asked for photographs and videos, he repeatedly said he would ask his boss. The next day, he supplied footage showing stock and production equipment alongside handwritten signs bearing my name and the XBT branding.
Everything appeared personalised for the interview and he kept calling me “dear” like is common for the Chinese vendors. What I didn’t know at the time, was that there was no independent Chinese sales representative called Nico behind the answers. The person speaking to me was Pepe, a Spanish group-buy organiser already well known within the community running his own Telegram groups.
I also didn’t know that Drastic, previously an admin for LN Peptides, who later appeared in public discussions as an interested customer trying to make sense of XBT, had also allegedly been involved behind the scenes with its technical setup. Nor did I know that Jay from Jay Sauces, another vendor in K-Hole, had already spent around ten days discussing XBT’s logistics, factories and automation with Pepe before the project arrived in K-Hole.
By the time those details emerged, the friendly interview had turned into something else entirely.
The Company Presented in the Interview
In the interview, Nico described XBT as a peptide distributor rather than a manufacturer. He said the company worked closely with two factories and selected between them according to the price and quality of their raw materials. XBT supposedly intended to buy its own machinery in the future but, for the moment, relied upon trusted factory partners.
According to Nico, XBT had operated as a distributor for approximately 14 months and he had worked at XBT for four months and in the peptide industry for approximately two years. Nico repeatedly spoke about “our company,” “our partners” and plans to purchase machinery “ourselves.” He referred to his boss when asked for additional evidence.
Nothing in the interview disclosed that Nico, with the Chinese-looking profile photograph, was Pepe, a Spanish group-buy operator who’d deliberately chosen not to use his established identity.
A Company Allegedly 14 Months Old, With an Eleven-Day-Old Domain
The interview went live on 21 July. A WHOIS search showed that xiangtanbiotech.com had been created on 11 July 2026, only ten days before publication. The domain was registered through NICENIC, with the registrant’s identity redacted and an address listed in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The registration therefore didn’t support the claim that XBT had already operated for approximately 14 months. What later emerged from Pepe’s own statements suggested that XBT had, in fact, only recently been assembled.
But the domain wasn’t the only inconsistency.
XBT Arrives in K-Hole
After the interview, XBT joined K-Hole and immediately began looking for promoters. Under the Nico account, XBT offered free peptides as compensation and invited members to help the company grow. The obvious question came almost immediately:
“no coas?”
Nico answered yes, then said the samples were on their way to Janoshik and that the results would arrive in two weeks. Members were told they would soon see the XBT name alongside a result showing 99% purity. When challenged over the absence of completed testing, Nico said:
“i can close my group and not sell until then I do not care about money”
He added:
“I’m here to offer a big service.”
XBT then advertised a testing promotion. Customers willing to test its products would receive the goods free and have the testing cost returned as store credit. Spending $300 on testing would supposedly result in $300 of XBT credit. The offer also promised replacements for quality problems and repeated the guarantees of more than 98% purity and more than 90% fill. Nico and Mia were listed as XBT’s official sales representatives.
At this stage, the community believed it was speaking to representatives of a new Chinese-facing distributor. In reality, at least one of those representative identities was being operated by Pepe.
The Factory Footage Raises Questions
Attention soon turned to the factory videos supplied by XBT. Members noticed similarities between XBT’s footage and material associated with another supplier. They pointed to what appeared to be the same curtains, shelving, chair and general production environment. One member suggested that XBT and Hui Hai were using the same production facility.
Nico objected, saying the filling machines weren’t the same and asking people to stop speculating. He reposted part of the interview in which XBT had described itself as a distributor rather than a manufacturer.
He told members:
“wait for lab test, we dont have fear, we are full transparent”
The issue, however, wasn’t simply whether XBT had claimed to own the factory. It was whether the footage had been presented with enough context for customers to understand whose facility they were actually seeing.
Pepe later supplied that missing context himself. In a private explanation, he said CXT was his supplier and that he’d contacted CXT to produce the stock and factory videos I requested. Those videos were then supplied for the XBT interview. Pepe maintained that the information in the interview was true and that the only fake element was the profile pic, which every Chinese vendor has anyway.
He even denied pretending to be Chinese to me, which is obviously false since in the chat before Nico’s real identity was exposed, he used language and phrasing to suggest he was Chinese. So although the name and pic may have been the only fabricated thing, it formed part of a broader presentation in which Pepe answered as Nico, described himself as XBT’s marketing representative, spoke about his boss and gave the impression that the person conducting the interview belonged to the Chinese operation being presented.
Nico, Mia and an Unfortunate Coincidence
The names Nico and Mia created another problem. Members recognised both names from Changsha Xijun Technology Co Ltd. XBT had appeared around the same period when the other vendor had become less visible, prompting questions about whether the representatives were the same. When asked directly whether he was the same Nico who had worked with Changsha, XBT Nico answered:
“no”
When asked if Mia was also unrelated, he responded:
“Who are they 😭😅”
Drastic, the Helpful Customer Who Was Not Merely a Customer
As the questions gathered, Drastic joined the public discussion. He appeared to approach XBT as an ordinary member considering an order. He said he was already speaking to Nico and intended to test several peptides. He commented that Nico’s mannerisms seemed different from those of the Changsha representative and suggested that Chinese representatives often selected random Western names. When another member asked where XBT was located, Drastic replied:
“id assume Xiangtan since thats what its called?”
He also treated the testing promotion as a positive sign, arguing that free shipping and store credit meant XBT would gain little if the products failed. At another point, he wrote that if the people behind XBT really had reused the same names,
“they really do think we’re just plain stupid.”
These comments read like the reactions of a customer trying to decide whether a new vendor was legitimate. However, according to Jay, that wasn’t Drastic’s actual position. Jay claims that Pepe told him during calls and private conversations that Drastic was his business partner in XBT. Jay was added to a private group with Pepe and Drastic called “XBT tracking bot,” where Drastic was responsible for tracking bots, ordering automation and related technical work.
Jay says the pair requested his logistics information and asked whether he had a portal they could access to automate the operation. He declined because he didn’t feel comfortable providing that level of access when the proposed arrangement had produced nothing for him.
When Jay later referred to Drastic publicly as the business partner, Drastic responded:
“Business partner? Hahahaha”
Pepe then reduced Drastic’s role to:
“He is only in charge of the bot.”
That still isn’t the role of an uninvolved customer and when I asked him what his role is he told me;
“I’m just the guy that helps pepe out with keeping stuff organised behind the scenes. I had nothing to do with Jay and Pepes dealings besides a few messages in a group chat between us - everything else is public”
“I’m in charge of the website and the telegram ordering bot and a little to do with forwarders/logistics. That’s as far as my ‘partnership’ goes.”
So the person helping with the mystery was apparently part of the mystery.
What Jay Says Happened Behind the Scenes
Jay’s involvement began before XBT’s public unveiling. According to Jay, he and Pepe had several long calls and conversations over approximately ten days when Jay asked Pepe for help growing his existing business. Pepe allegedly told him that he was moving around 5,000 kits per month. He asked for Jay’s prices and said he could already obtain similar prices but needed cheaper and more efficient logistics.
Jay said he could help. He supplied his logistics address and was introduced to a factory contact provided by Pepe. Jay negotiated with the factory and passed the final price back to Pepe, who reportedly said it was still too high and wanted a better deal.
During these discussions, Jay says Pepe explained that he intended to create XBT and own the operation. Drastic would handle the bots and automation, while Jay would contribute the freight-forwarding and logistics side.
Jay believed the arrangement could substantially increase his income. He says the proposal involved earning approximately $5 for each kit he helped ship. If Pepe’s claim of 5,000 kits per month was accurate, Jay expected the opportunity to transform his business.
The arrangement never reached that stage. Jay says the factory contact began behaving differently from the manufacturers he normally used. His existing contacts could ship on the same day, while the new supplier took approximately five days. After ordering kits through the contact, Jay became frustrated and complained to Pepe. Because the supplier had been introduced through Pepe, Jay directed his anger at him. An argument followed. According to Jay, Pepe said his business partner considered Jay rude and no longer wanted to work with him.
Jay had disclosed his address, spent time negotiating and believed he was entering an arrangement which could multiply his income. He then learned that the partnership was no longer happening. He admits he lost his temper.
The Threat
Jay sent Pepe a message stating:
“Just remember one thing bro idgaf who u r you promised me MONEY, if I don’t see you making me money in 4/6 weeks then we will see whose a boss and who isn’t”
He followed it with:
“Yeah it’s a threat idgaf do whatu wanna do”
There is no reasonable way to dress that up. It was a threat, and Jay himself now accepts that. He told me he said “some silly stuff” which he regrets. He apologised for his involvement and said he wishes he’d continued with his own business instead of entering the arrangement. But being angry about a failed deal doesn’t excuse threatening someone. But at the same time, the threat doesn’t make the information about XBT untrue.
Both things can exist together: Jay behaved badly, and Jay possessed information which XBT’s potential customers had not been given.
The Threat, the Allegations and Pepe’s Pre-emptive Disclosure
After their proposed arrangement broke down, Jay threatened to reveal that XBT was a newly created operation controlled by somebody already known within the community. Private messages show Jay telling Pepe to explain why he had “made up a fake name.”
Pepe disclosed his involvement before Jay made the allegation publicly, but his own words connect that decision directly to Jay’s threat.
At 10:48 a.m (BST) on July 25, Jay publicly asked “Nico from XBT” to message him. At 11:38 a.m (BST), Pepe announced that XBT was backed by him, at 11.39am (BST) he admitted that Jay was supposed to be the forwarder and then at 11:56 a.m (BST) he made his announcement after which he wrote:
“This Jay guy threatens me so I now will be full transparent.”
Two minutes later, at 11:58 a.m (BST), Jay publicly accused Pepe of posing as Nico and operating what he described as a fake Chinese-facing company and at the same time accuses Drastic of being Pepe’s business partner.
TPepe therefore didn’t come forward before Jay exposed him publicly, however, at the same as time this was going on publicly, in a private exchange, Jay told Pepe;
“How did i know you gonna talk about it, can’t you see I didn’t say any stuff?” at 12.42 pm (CEST)
to which Pepe replied
“I already spoke with Krysia.” at 12.42 pm (CEST)
Jay’s response, “How did I know you gonna talk about it?” suggests the announcement wasn’t coordinated with him and that he didn’t know Pepe had already contacted me.
The fairest conclusion is that Pepe disclosed XBT’s ownership himself and before Jay did, but only after their arrangement had collapsed and the threat of exposure had become immediate.
Jay then alleged that XBT intended to use Janoshik reports associated with products sourced from existing manufacturers and present them under the XBT name. Jay initially referred to “fake Janoshik reports,” which sounded like an accusation that XBT intended to fabricate laboratory certificates. When challenged, he clarified:
“Fake Janoshik in the sense of using your own Janoshik reports from other manufacturers but changing the name to XBT.”
Pepe denied intending to fake anything and repeatedly challenged Jay to provide evidence.
The $1,500, the Custom Boxes and the Separate $3,000 Claim
Money was also discussed publicly, but two separate arrangements appeared to become mixed together.
Pepe stated that he’d paid Jay $1,500. Jay responded that this payment related to a service involving 500 custom boxes and said the order was still being completed. He asked Pepe to send his delivery address privately. Based on the messages shown, the $1,500 appears to relate to a physical order or service. There is no evidence in these screenshots that it was payment for silence, ownership of XBT or control over the operation.
Jay separately claims that Pepe offered him $3,000 for access to his logistics or freight-forwarding arrangement after their partnership broke down.
The screenshots show a discussion involving “3k for forwarder.” Pepe appears to ask whether Jay would accept $3,000, while Jay refuses and refers to “3k and cheap peps.”
The exact terms aren’t completely clear from the extracts, but what is clear is that Jay and Pepe had discussed suppliers, logistics, pricing, money and a possible business arrangement before their public confrontation.
Pepe’s Earlier Annoucement
In his lengthy statement, he acknowledged that XBT was backed and organised by him. He said he wanted to create something resembling the Chinese seller groups already operating in the community, but with automated ordering, fewer delays, faster tracking and testing for every batch.
He explained that he didn’t want to operate it under his established identity because customers tended to gravitate towards whoever appeared closest to the factory. He wrote:
“When I’ve offered my services before, I’ve heard things like ‘but you’re not Chinese’, as if that matters more than actually delivering a better service.”
Pepe also acknowledged that operating XBT separately allowed people who disliked him to access his pricing without dealing with him directly. He said he had processed more than $1 million through group buys without scamming anybody and maintained that XBT was intended to provide cheap, tested and reliable products. He said the project would continue once its testing and pricing were ready.
Most importantly, Pepe admitted that the project had been “lacking transparency.”
That’s putting it mildly. XBT hadn’t simply omitted Pepe’s name from an ownership page, Pepe had communicated through the Nico identity and answered my interview as though he were an employee responsible for sales and marketing who reported to a boss. Potential customers were allowed to believe they were dealing directly with a Chinese representative when they were actually communicating with a Spanish group-buy organiser already known within the community. Pepe later complicated matters further by saying, “Nico isn’t even fully me,” leaving unanswered whether anybody else used the account and which messages or interview answers they wrote.
Where XBT Stands Now
Following the controversy, XBT announced that a “strict crackdown” was under way in China and that it couldn’t ship any time soon. Members were told updates would follow the next week, and the topic was closed.
Pepe said he intended to continue developing the project, improve its service and secure factory relationships offering the lowest possible prices. Testing was still pending at the time of the discussions shown.
Consumers will have to judge any future XBT offer on completed, independently verifiable testing, clear batch identification and the conduct of the people behind it. They should also know exactly who those people are.
XBT wasn’t simply Nico and Mia working for a Chinese biotechnology distributor.
Nico was Pepe. Pepe was the Spanish group-buy organiser behind XBT.
Drastic was involved with its bots and technical infrastructure and was described by Jay as Pepe’s business partner, despite appearing publicly as an ordinary interested buyer.
Jay was the proposed logistics partner who helped negotiate with a supplier, expected to earn money from the operation, lost the deal, threatened Pepe and then exposed what he knew.
This wasn’t one person discovering a mystery company, it was a business arrangement breaking apart in public. The factory footage may have been real. The products may yet prove genuine. The intended service may even have been good. The transparency was not.
My Thoughts
By now, nothing surprises me in the grey-market community and I know of far worse things people have done and are still doing.
Pepe isn’t the first non-Chinese person to present himself as a Chinese vendor. Cain from Nexaph did something similar back in 2024, although he was able to maintain the deception for longer than Pepe did. He was also treated far more harshly by the community when the truth came to light. For a long time afterwards, he remained someone people were wary of and reluctant to trust. It took Cain a long time to move beyond that deception. Now, in 2026, many people are no longer aware of his past, especially compared with the reaction he faced at the time.
By comparison, Pepe appears to have got away rather lightly.
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