Elon Musk’s X Cracks Down on Crypto Posting Rewards

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Elon Musk’s X has stopped crypto tasks from paying customers to publish content material in alternate for tokens, as product chief Nikita Bier stated these reward apps have brought on an excessive amount of spam and low-quality AI posts.

X has now eliminated their API entry, which means bots and customers can now not earn cash simply by posting. After the announcement, the KAITO token dropped about 15%, falling from round $0.70 to $0.57.

KaitoAI founder Yu Hu stated the corporate will shut down its “Yaps” rewards and leaderboard system. Kaito is now transferring to a brand new mannequin known as Kaito Studio, which can deal with higher-quality creators and higher model partnerships as a substitute of mass reward packages.

We’re revising our developer API insurance policies:

We are going to now not enable apps that reward customers for posting on X (aka “infofi”). This has led to an incredible quantity of AI slop & reply spam on the platform.

We have now revoked API entry from these apps, so your X expertise ought to…

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 15, 2026

Hu defined that Yaps was meant to reward folks pretty based mostly on their contributions. Over time, Kaito added stricter guidelines and filters to scale back spam. Nonetheless, spam nonetheless elevated on X as a result of different tasks had weaker guidelines, and X’s algorithm adjustments allowed low-quality posts to unfold.

Kaito Shifts to Focused Creator Rewards

Many cryptocurrency tasks utilized Kaito to advertise their tokens and entice customers, significantly in South Korea. Nonetheless, Hu stated the cryptocurrency trade is evolving. As a substitute of massive airdrops and open reward techniques, tasks now desire focused incentives that reward particular actions.

Kaito Studio will use a tier system the place manufacturers work with chosen creators based mostly on knowledge and relevance. It is going to additionally develop to different platforms like YouTube and TikTok, and later into non-crypto industries.

Hu confirmed that Kaito’s different merchandise, similar to Kaito Professional, API, Launchpad, and Markets, won’t be affected. The KAITO token will nonetheless be used within the new system.

The transfer brought on blended reactions within the crypto group. Some consultants blamed AI spam campaigns for the issue, whereas others praised X for cleansing up pretend engagement and bettering content material high quality.