X Bans InfoFi Apps, Revokes API Access Over Spam Concerns

X has banned crypto marketing applications that reward users for posting on the platform. The social media company revoked API access from InfoFi apps, citing widespread AI-generated spam and low-quality content flooding user feeds.

Nikita Bier, X Product Lead, announced the policy revision on the platform. The decision targets applications that incentivize users to post content in exchange for cryptocurrency rewards.

We are revising our developer API policies:

We will no longer allow apps that reward users for posting on X (aka “infofi”). This has led to a tremendous amount of AI slop & reply spam on the platform.

We have revoked API access from these apps, so your X experience should…

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 15, 2026

Bier noted that users should see improvement in their X experience soon. He explained that bots will stop receiving payments due to the API revocations.

In a pointed remark, Bier offered to help affected developers transition their businesses. He suggested they move to competing platforms Threads and Bluesky.

Kaito Announces Major InfoFi Platform Pivot

Following the announcement, Kaito founder Yu Hu confirmed the company is shutting down its Yaps rewards program. The platform will transition to a new service called Kaito Studio.

https://t.co/K1J71SYCpy

— Yu Hu 🌊 (@Punk9277) January 15, 2026

Yaps allowed users and creators to earn rewards for promoting brands on social media. The system aimed to embody Web3 principles through permissionless, merit-based participation.

Yu Hu acknowledged persistent quality issues despite multiple attempts at improvement. The company experimented with tighter eligibility requirements and higher leaderboard thresholds over the past year.

After discussions with X, it’s agreed that a fully permissionless distribution system is no longer viable

Yu Hu wrote

He stated the model no longer aligns with high-quality brands or serious content creators.

Kaito Studio will operate as a tier-based marketing platform. Brands will selectively work with creators who meet defined criteria and deliver against clear scopes.

The new platform will expand beyond crypto to include finance and AI verticals. Yu Hu stated it will also support multiple platforms including YouTube and TikTok.

2026 will be the year Kaito goes beyond CT as its primary platform and beyond crypto as its primary vertical

Yu Hu declared.

Months of Industry Criticism Preceded Ban

The X policy change follows months of growing backlash against InfoFi platforms. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT launched a public campaign against these services in December 2025.

ZachXBT offered a $5,000 bounty to scrape user data from multiple InfoFi platforms. His targets included Kaito Yaps, Galxe, Layer3, Cookie, Wallchain, and Xeet.

We will collectively block the hundreds of thousands of InfoFi farmers that spam AI slop replies.

I support scamming, suspending, draining, or breaching dbs for all of them.

Make CT great again. pic.twitter.com/eNM3uPM8VV

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 12, 2025

The investigator accused these platforms of incentivizing AI-driven posting behavior. He claimed automated content was overrunning even donation threads for open-source developers.

Data scraping for Xeet, covering 144,000 X accounts, was completed within hours. ZachXBT offered separate rewards for datasets from each targeted platform.

Opposition to InfoFi influencers intensified throughout 2024. Community members complained that engagement-driven scoring systems rewarded volume over meaningful contributions.

Ubee, a former Vertex Protocol support team member, called InfoFi platforms the “most widely promoted scams” of the crypto cycle. The trader argued that communities evaporate after token generation events.

Critics maintained that the model creates cycles where projects must constantly manufacture hype. They said communities disappear once initial token rewards are distributed.

Kaito has onboarded hundreds of thousands of new users into crypto through its Yaps program. South Korea became the platform’s largest country by user base during this period.

Yu Hu stated the broader industry has moved away from high-volume distribution and airdrop models. Projects now prefer more targeted approaches for structuring rewards.