Elon Musk’s X has officially declared war on crypto projects that pay users to post, calling the practice a source of ‘AI slop’ and reply spam. Head of Product Nikita Bier announced the platform will no longer allow apps rewarding users for posting, a move that directly targets the so-called ‘InfoFi’ sector. As part of the crackdown, X has revoked API access for these projects, with Bier stating the user experience should improve once bots realize they’re no longer getting paid.
The announcement sent shockwaves through the InfoFi market, with Kaito—a project that has become synonymous with the niche—seeing its native token nosedive. According to CoinGecko, the KAITO token dropped over 15% within 30 minutes of the news, falling from around $0.58. Other InfoFi tokens tracked by the platform, including Cookie DAO and Loud, also suffered double-digit declines.
Bier’s statement included a pointed offer for affected developers: assistance in transitioning their businesses to Meta’s Threads or Bluesky. The decision follows recent controversy over the use of ‘gm’—crypto slang for ‘good morning’—which Bier had previously criticized as a source of low-quality content. In a separate development, Kaito confirmed it was sunsetting its ‘Yaps’ feature, which allowed users to earn a tokenized score for engagement, stating it wasn’t aligned with X’s needs for high-quality content.
While some speculated InfoFi platforms could simply pay X for Enterprise API access, Bier shut that down, noting, "They were already paying us millions for Enterprise API access. We don’t want it." The move signals a clear shift in X’s stance toward incentivized engagement, prioritizing platform quality over paid hype. Meanwhile, X continues to push its own crypto-related features, like the recently introduced ‘Smart Cashtags’ for real-time asset data.
