Elon Musk’s X Takes on Cryptocurrency Posting Rewards

Elon Musk’s

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

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

We are revising our Developer API policies:

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

We’ve revoked API access for these apps, so your X experience should…

– Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 15, 2026

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

Kaito moves to targeted creator rewards

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

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

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 within the crypto community. Some experts blamed the problem on AI spam campaigns, while others praised X for eliminating fake engagements and improving content quality.

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