X Delivers a Fatal Blow to ‘Post-to-Earn’ InfoFi: A New Era for Crypto Content
Late on January 15th, a silent but seismic shift reverberated through the crypto Twitter (CT) community. X (formerly Twitter) issued an unexpected announcement, effectively severing API access for InfoFi applications. This move brought the “post-to-earn” model to an unceremonious halt, forcing project teams into rapid pivots and leaving many “mouth-mining” participants reeling from the sudden collapse of their earning avenues.
X Revokes API Access, Rejects Millions in “Toll Fees”
The InfoFi sector experienced an overnight upheaval. Nikita Bier, X’s Product Lead and a Solana ecosystem advisor, formally declared that the platform is revising its developer API policy. Crucially, X will no longer permit applications that reward users for posting, directly singling out InfoFi.
Bier candidly stated that such incentive mechanisms were the primary culprits behind the proliferation of AI-generated spam and low-quality responses flooding the platform. X has already revoked API access for these applications, anticipating a swift improvement in user experience once bots realize their remuneration has ceased.
In a move dripping with irony, Bier “helpfully” suggested that affected developers could transition their operations to Meta’s Threads or the decentralized social media platform, Bluesky.
What’s even more striking is X’s resolute decision to forgo millions in revenue from InfoFi applications, despite their high-frequency API calls. “InfoFi apps have been paying us millions of dollars for enterprise-level API access. We don’t want that money,” Bier affirmed. This statement unequivocally signals that user experience is X’s paramount strategic priority, overshadowing the relatively minor revenue contributions from these applications compared to X’s overall annual earnings.
This development definitively marks the end of the InfoFi model, which had parasitically thrived on the X ecosystem, and with it, the era of simple, often crude, “mouth-mining” for rewards.
This isn’t Nikita Bier’s first skirmish against low-quality content. Not long ago, he criticized the “suicidal demise” of crypto tweets. Bier had previously argued that since October last year, a pervasive belief in CT suggested users needed to reply hundreds of times daily for account growth. However, each post consumes a portion of a user’s daily influence, and with average users browsing only 20-30 posts a day, X cannot display all posts to all followers. Consequently, crypto users were effectively “wasting” their influence by scattering it across numerous low-impact engagements rather than focusing on quality.
His earlier tweet provoked significant backlash from the crypto community, even sparking a widespread “GM (Good Morning)” counter-attack, ultimately leading to its deletion. Yet, in retrospect, X’s determination to tackle low-quality content was a clear precursor to the recent policy changes.
Ecosystem Projects Scramble to Pivot Amidst Accusations of Insider Trading
With X’s API policy tightening, the InfoFi narrative is facing a harsh winter. CoinGecko data reveals a sharp decline in the InfoFi sector’s market capitalization, plummeting to $350 million in the past 24 hours, with many tokens experiencing double-digit percentage drops. Even the floor price of Kaito’s Yapybaras NFT was not spared, suffering a precipitous fall.
Under immense pressure for survival, multiple InfoFi applications have swiftly announced their转型 (pivot).
Kaito, a prominent project, through its founder Yu Hu, stated that the company would gradually discontinue Yaps and its incentive-based leaderboard system. Instead, it will launch the new Kaito Studio. This decision stems from the platform’s struggle with low-quality content and spam, alongside the crypto industry’s broader shift from high-frequency global distribution to more precise marketing. Following discussions with X, both parties concurred that a completely unauthorized distribution system is no longer viable nor aligned with the needs of high-quality brands, serious content creators, or X itself. Kaito has been developing Kaito Studio for several months, which will adopt a tiered, traditional marketing model, connecting brands with high-quality creators through top-tier analytics tools across multiple platforms like X, YouTube, and TikTok, and expanding into non-crypto sectors such as finance and AI.
Similarly, Cookie DAO, after consulting with the X team, decided to immediately close its Snaps platform and all creator activities. Cookie DAO will await confirmation and guidance from X to determine if creator activities similar to Snaps can operate in any form in the future. The platform is directly communicating with all projects currently running Snaps campaigns, acknowledging that some situations are complex, involving paid campaign fees and promised rewards. While a complete solution isn’t yet available, Cookie DAO pledges to communicate directly with each project based on principles of fairness. All active campaigns have been snapshotted and archived, and creators will receive updates promptly. Other Cookie products remain unaffected. Additionally, the platform has been developing Cookie Pro, a real-time crypto market intelligence tool, over the past six months, with a planned launch in Q1.
The statements from these projects suggest that this policy adjustment was not a sudden “black swan” event. Teams appear to have anticipated the shifting winds and initiated their transformation strategies in advance. This has, however, sparked market controversy, with the community questioning whether projects had foreknowledge of the negative news and consequently offloaded assets.
For instance, Kaito’s multi-signature contract address reportedly distributed 24 million KAITO tokens (approximately $13.31 million) to five addresses two weeks prior. Crypto KOL “vasucrypto” monitored an address (0x049A-开头) linked to the Kaito team, which transferred 5 million KAITO to Binance seven days ago, potentially for sale. Adding to the intrigue, crypto KOL “加密無畏” noted that KAITO staking unlocks were peaking around this period. Another 1.1 million KAITO tokens were scheduled for unlock on January 17th, with a 7-day unstaking period.
Bidding Farewell to the “Mouth-Mining” Era: Belated Content Justice
This brutal industry purge by X is more than just a platform rule adjustment; it’s a fundamental reshaping of the crypto content ecosystem.
For X, a platform heavily reliant on advertising revenue and subscription services, this adjustment is a necessary survival choice in the face of slowing user growth, inefficient traffic monetization, and the aggressive rise of competitors. Indeed, over the past few months, X had already begun implementing drastic reforms in content and traffic distribution, including adjusting algorithm weights and increasing revenue for quality creators. Ultimately, X’s true target isn’t merely the InfoFi model, but rather the low-quality content that severely dilutes platform value and drives away genuine users.
For the crypto Twitter community, this represents a long-overdue content reckoning. While the initial intent of the InfoFi model was to incentivize creators to produce high-quality content through token rewards, and it did briefly flourish, this mechanism was ultimately distorted by “wool-pulling” (sybil attacks and reward farming). A deluge of profit-seekers relentlessly generated low-quality, repetitive spam to maximize rewards. This artificial traffic boom not only led to uninspired content but also drowned out genuinely insightful and valuable contributions, accelerating the exodus of authentic users.
For CT users weary of the incessant spam, this “blockade” is undoubtedly a much-needed “noise filter,” finally allowing their timelines to breathe.
However, the decline in CT’s vibrancy isn’t solely attributable to InfoFi; it’s also closely tied to the broader downturn in the crypto industry. Even crypto content viewership on YouTube has fallen to its lowest levels since January 2021.
Regardless, the demise of the InfoFi model is a necessary step towards improving the readability of crypto content and returning to the essence of valuable information. For InfoFi projects, with the shortcut of parasitic reliance on Web2 giant traffic now severed, the pressing challenge is to establish a SocialFi mechanism built on genuine value flow.
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