THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED SEPTEMBER 30, 2026
Short answer: Blizzard removed the gold that level 1 characters traded to the streamer Ziqo on the WoW Forever beta, and left his mage with 9 silver. He was not banned. Ziqo says he received roughly 520 gold from viewers, mostly in two trades, and that Blizzard also took the gold he'd farmed on that character. He says he doesn't believe the gold was bought. Blizzard hasn't commented on him by name. Its only public statement is a general warning from Kaivax on September 28 that buyers, and people who accept gold they "knew or should-have-known" was dirty, can lose the gold or their accounts. The gap between that warning and "gold removed, keep playing" is why the forum thread about it has passed 1,400 replies.
How it started
On September 27 Tips Out announced The Forever Open, a level 30 duel tournament on the beta that TimTheTatman doubled to $100,000 the next day. Our Forever Open guide covers the rules. Duels at 30 reward gear, consumables and enchants, and gear costs gold.
Within a day, players on the forums were saying that streamers were suddenly carrying far more gold than a level 20 beta should produce. A thread titled "Gold buying rules" opened on September 28 at 14:32 UTC and named nobody at first. It pointed to a streamer being traded more than 500 gold by two level 1 characters.
That evening a clip went viral. Posted by the ClipsForeverWoW account on X at 21:45 UTC, it shows a level 1 in Valley of Trials putting 380 gold into a trade window with Ziqo and asking nothing back. The post had over 400,000 views by September 30. GameSpot reported a second trade of 175 gold from another level 1, and that Ziqo can be heard saying on stream that there was no way that much gold was "natty" before he accepted it.
For context, testers in the same thread said people selling enchants and summons were making up to 200 gold an hour at the current cap, and that a guild could pool a few hundred gold legitimately. So a big pile of gold is not proof of anything by itself. Gold from level 1 characters with no reason to have it is a different matter, and that's what most of the anger is about.
What Blizzard said
Kaivax posted in the thread at 20:06 UTC on September 28. The key lines:
"While we have always actioned RMT seller's accounts as quickly as possible, we will increasingly take action against buyers' accounts. That means that we will remove the illicit gold from the recipient, and/or take further actions, which can include closing accounts."
He also asked players to be "very cautious when it comes to accepting gifts from strangers or other one-sided transactions," and said that if "a recipient knew or should-have-known that gold wasn't from a legitimate source, they may be subject to account actions as well."
That goes further than the September 17 Q&A, where Josh Greenfield said Blizzard had been "probably too lenient on gold buyers" (see our GDKP ban explainer). The Q&A talked about buyers. This post extends it to people who receive gold and should have known better.
What happened to Ziqo
On September 29 Ziqo told his audience that Blizzard had swept the gold from his mage and left nine silver. Sportskeeda reported the details from his stream: about 520 gold from viewers, most of it in two large trades, all removed along with gold he'd farmed himself on that character. His other characters were not touched, and he was not suspended.
Ziqo's position, as Sportskeeda and Icy Veins both report it, is that he doesn't think the gold was bought. He floated two other explanations: that it came from an exploit, or that it was legitimate and Blizzard felt it had to act anyway. We haven't found anything that settles which it was, and Blizzard hasn't said.
We're not naming the level 1 characters or anyone else accused in the forum threads. Other streamers have been named there too, but we found no evidence against them beyond forum posts, and no press has reported it.
The "account closed" clip was not real
Late on September 29, the wowforeverNOW account on X posted a clip of Ziqo logging in to a "This World of Warcraft account has been closed" message and saying "It's over. GGs." It spread fast and a forum thread went up calling it a ban. Within about 15 minutes the person who started that thread posted: "i got clip baited. his account wasn't closed." Online coverage has treated it as a troll. As far as anyone can show, Ziqo's account is open.
Why players are angry anyway
The forum thread has grown to more than 1,400 posts, and Kaivax has merged three more threads into it, including one titled "Blizzard takes gold with 0 ban time" that had 632 posts on its own. The complaints are consistent:
- Consistency. Several players say they were suspended over much smaller trades, like a few gold between their own characters or silver for a summon. Those accounts can't be checked, but they fuel the "streamers get special treatment" argument. "Treat everyone equally," one player wrote, as quoted by GameSpot.
- The tournament. Some want Ziqo kept out of The Forever Open. The organizers haven't said anything about it, and as far as we can tell Blizzard has no role in running the event.
Not everyone agrees. Plenty of replies point out that popular streamers get flooded with gifts by fans who farmed legitimately, and that punishing the recipient hard for someone else's purchase would be easy to abuse. One poster described trolls mailing gold to people they dislike to get them flagged.
What it means for you
The practical takeaway is short: don't accept big one-sided trades from strangers on the beta or at launch. Under Kaivax's wording, the recipient of RMT gold can lose it, and a recipient who should have known can lose more. The Ziqo case shows the first half of that in action. It says nothing yet about how the second half will be applied.
Blizzard has also closed one of the easiest ways to launder gold: GDKP raids are banned in Forever, and gold laundering was one of the three reasons Greenfield gave. If you want gold for your first mount the honest way, a gathering profession is still the easiest start. Our professions guide has the Forever bonuses, and our note on shared skinning explains why leather may not be the one to pick.
We'll update this page if Blizzard says anything more about Ziqo or changes how it treats recipients.
Sources: Blizzard forums, Gold buying rules (September 28 to 30) and Kaivax's reply, post #43 (September 28); Blizzard forums, Blizzard takes gold with 0 ban time (September 29, merged) and Alleged RMT streamer has forever account closed (September 29); ClipsForeverWoW on X (September 28); N_Tys26 on X (September 29); wowforeverNOW on X (September 29); GameSpot, WoW: Forever players are up in arms over streamer not being banned for illegal gold (September 29); Sportskeeda, Twitch streamer Ziqo and World of Warcraft Forever in-game gold controversy (September 29); Icy Veins, Blizzard Takes Action Against Possible RMT on the WoW: Forever Beta (September 29); Warcraft Tavern, Blizzard plans a more aggressive stance on gold buying in WoW Forever (September 28); Tips Out on X (September 28).