The long-unseen collective account bans in the crypto world have made a reappearance—not on Weibo, but on Elon Musk's so-called free speech platform, X.

Currently banned crypto-related accounts include the official gmgn account and its founder, the official eliza account and its founder, as well as a slew of well-known crypto influencers (KOLs).

Possible Reasons for the Bans

Historically speaking, X has had many individual account bans, such as Trump or CSW (Craig Steven Wright), a figure familiar in the crypto world. However, large-scale account bans are exceedingly rare.

One notable example was in 2021 during the Capitol Hill incident, where tens of thousands of accounts supporting Trump were banned. At the end of 2022, after Elon Musk took over X, he cleared out a large number of fake or impersonation accounts, as well as large numbers of bot accounts—essentially accounts that were detrimental to his interests or political direction.

There is one theory that this latest wave of bans is related to a political meme, shown in the image below. The meme ostensibly plays on the potential reconciliation between Trump and Musk, as both parties had exchanged words of goodwill. Some believe Musk disapproved of the meme and banned the associated accounts because of it.

But this reason doesn't hold water. Firstly, it’s not only these few accounts that posted the meme. Some of the banned accounts didn’t even share the meme, while other accounts on X that posted the image were unaffected by the bans.

Another theory suggests the bans may primarily involve GMGN, as GMGN has long engaged in intensive scraping of substantial amounts of tweets on X using bots. However, this argument is somewhat problematic too. There are plenty of InfoFi projects that aren't paying X to use its API properly and are essentially doing the same thing—scraping data. Yet, their accounts remain intact.

BlockBeats also reached out to one of the banned account owners, Haze, who said they are still unsure of the exact reason and are waiting for a response from X.

Interestingly, Elon Musk tweeted on June 10th that the algorithm on X had been updated with significant use of Grok. Out of curiosity regarding this account-ban incident, we also inquired with Grok.

Grok listed some potential reasons:

1. User Reports: Some posts claim that a user utilized quant-bots to spam-report Chinese crypto accounts, accusing them of "buying low and selling high" or manipulating small wallets for ambushes and dumping with larger wallets. Such reports may lead the algorithm to mistakenly flag accounts for "platform manipulation" or "spam."

2. Content Patterns: Accounts frequently mentioning specific crypto projects (e.g., ai16z, ElizaOS) or interacting with GMGN might be flagged by algorithms as "promotional inducement" or "potential scams." X is particularly sensitive to cryptocurrency content, given its association with high-risk investments or fraud schemes.

3. Algorithmic Misjudgments: Grok-enhanced automated detection may overly target accounts with high posting frequency or similar patterns (e.g., meme coin promotions), leading to wrongful suspensions. Historical cases reveal that crypto-related accounts were temporarily banned after being mistakenly flagged as spam.

Will It Follow Weibo's Footsteps?

Twitter’s recent wave of restrictions on crypto users' accounts draws easy parallels to Weibo’s large-scale account suspensions in 2018 and 2021. Back then, Weibo targeted key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the crypto space, shutting down accounts linked to platforms like Jinse Finance, Huobi News, and Bishijie, as well as individual accounts such as @超级比特币 (Super Bitcoin), @交易员小侠 (Trader Xiaoxia), @蓝少CX (Lan Shao CX), @李法师Tony (Master Li Tony), @比特币凯撒 (Bitcoin Caesar), and @肥宅比特币 (Fat Bitcoin Enthusiast). These accounts were rendered inaccessible, with notices indicating violations of laws, regulations, or the Weibo Community Guidelines.

Following these events, crypto KOLs on Weibo were forced to migrate to Twitter. Under the opaque scrutiny of Weibo’s regime, a large number of content creators were effectively "uprooted," resulting in Weibo losing its role as a central hub for crypto discourse.

It was under this context that Twitter became a critical platform for the Chinese crypto community. Compared to Weibo’s restrictive censorship system, Twitter’s openness and its brand narrative of free expression provided a refuge for numerous crypto KOLs and project teams. Yet now, this refuge appears to be losing its protective qualities. With the deeper integration of AI-driven content governance systems (like Grok), X's account suspension actions are becoming more systematic, more automated, and harder to hold accountable.

The key difference, however, is that X's platform censorship isn’t government-driven. Instead, it appears to be shifting toward a new centralized model of informational control driven by the logic of dehumanization and algorithmic governance. Under this system, even without direct interference in content assessment, the platform may exacerbate misjudgments, amplify public outrage, and forgo manual reviews, thereby creating an even less transparent environment for expression.

Further Reading: "The World Hates Today's Social Media"

Faced with the increasingly reinforced logic of technological blockade, the value of decentralized social networks is being re-evaluated. On-chain social protocols such as Farcaster and Lens Protocol are frequently mentioned again. However, these protocols are still in their early stages and their user experience and mainstream influence are far from competing with X, making it difficult to form a viable alternative in the short term.

That said, in the context of being stuck in the content platform cycle and facing a stringent regulatory environment, it seems foreseeable that content creators may gravitate toward decentralized social platforms, gaining more freedom over account ownership.

Finally, to protect the X accounts of cryptocurrency content creators, the following measures can be taken to reduce risks:

1. Avoid high-frequency promotion: Reduce the frequent mention of specific projects or contract addresses (CAs) to avoid being mistakenly flagged as incentivized content.

2. Post compliant content: Ensure that posts do not involve exaggerated returns or misleading statements and adhere to X's advertising and financial product policies.

3. Security measures: Enable two-factor authentication (2FA), periodically review account permissions, and prevent exploitation by hackers leading to account bans.

4. Appeals and communication: If banned, promptly submit an appeal through X's appeal channels and openly seek community support.

BlockBeats will continue to monitor this situation closely, providing readers with reliable updates in real-time.

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