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Elon Musk’s X has stopped crypto projects from paying users to post content in exchange for tokens, as product chief Nikita Bier said these reward apps have caused too much spam and low-quality AI posts.

X has now removed their API access, meaning bots and users can no longer earn money just by posting. After the announcement, the KAITO token dropped about 15%, falling from around $0.70 to $0.57.

KaitoAI founder Yu Hu said the company will shut down its “Yaps” rewards and leaderboard system. Kaito is now moving to a new model called Kaito Studio, which will focus on higher-quality creators and better brand partnerships instead of mass reward programs.

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

Hu explained that Yaps was meant to reward people fairly based on their contributions. Over time, Kaito added stricter rules and filters to reduce spam. However, spam still increased on X because other projects had weaker rules, and X’s algorithm changes allowed low-quality posts to spread.

Kaito Shifts to Targeted Creator Rewards

Many cryptocurrency projects utilized Kaito to promote their tokens and attract users, particularly in South Korea. However, Hu said the cryptocurrency industry is evolving. Instead of big airdrops and open reward systems, projects now prefer targeted incentives that reward specific actions.

Kaito Studio will use a tier system where brands work with selected creators based on data and relevance. It will also expand to other platforms like YouTube and TikTok, and later into non-crypto industries.

Hu confirmed that Kaito’s other products, such as Kaito Pro, API, Launchpad, and Markets, will not be affected. The KAITO token will still be used in the new system.

The move caused mixed reactions in the crypto community. Some experts blamed AI spam campaigns for the problem, while others praised X for cleaning up fake engagement and improving content quality.

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