X Purges ‘InfoFi’ Apps; DeFi Giants Lock Down Discord Servers
X revokes API access for ‘pay-to-post’ crypto apps, crashing KAITO by 15%, while Morpho and Optimism restrict Discord access to combat phishing.
The “yap-to-earn” era is effectively over. X (formerly Twitter) product lead Nikita Bier announced Thursday the platform has revoked API access for applications that financially reward users for engagement. The policy shift targets the burgeoning “InfoFi” sector, which Bier blamed for generating “a tremendous amount of AI slop and reply spam.”
Markets reacted instantly. Kaito (KAITO), a token central to the crypto-twitter sentiment analysis ecosystem, plummeted 15% to $0.57 within minutes of the announcement. Cookie (COOKIE), another engagement-focused project, shed nearly 20%. The ban dismantles the core mechanic of these protocols: incentivizing users to post specific keywords or tickers to farm token rewards.
“We have revoked API access from these apps, so your X experience should start improving soon (once the bots realize they’re not getting paid anymore),” Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X
The Discord Exodus
The crackdown on low-quality engagement is not isolated to X. A simultaneous security pivot is sweeping the DeFi sector, with major protocols downgrading their Discord servers from open communities to read-only bulletin boards.
Morpho Labs confirmed it will transition its Discord to read-only mode effective February 1. Co-founder Merlin Egalite cited an unmanageable volume of phishing attacks, noting that users were regularly drained of funds even in heavily moderated channels. “Discord is actually full of scammers,” Egalite wrote, signaling a permanent shift away from the platform as a support venue.
Layer 2 giant Optimism has already executed a similar lockdown, restricting public posting to curb scam vectors. DefiLlama founder 0xngmi backed the trend, stating the analytics platform is moving strictly to live chat and email support because Discord architectures make it “impossible to protect your users.”
Institutional Context
This dual purge marks the maturation of crypto marketing. The industry is deprecating the “engagement farming” model, characterized by paid shills and open chat rooms, in favor of verified, controlled communication channels. While retail users lose the “town square” feel of early crypto communities, projects are clearly prioritizing liability reduction over noise.
