Years of crypto scams wreaking havoc on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, have resulted in the implementation of a ‘kill switch’ for users talking about crypto.
An automatic lock on posting cryptocurrency?
The announcement of the toughest anti-crypto scam measure yet was made on Wednesday by Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, via a post on the same social media.
Yes, we are aware.
We are in the process of implementing auto-lock + verification when a user posts about cryptocurrency for the first time in their account history.
This should remove 99% of the incentive, especially since Google is doing nothing to stop the phishing…
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 1, 2026
The measure was brought to public attention after Bier, who is also an ecosystem advisor to Solana, responded to a message from British Web3 creator Benjamin White. In his thread, White explained how his account was phished via a fake copyright email. This led to his X account being compromised and used to promote crypto fraud.
Yes, I have been phished. 🎣
You can listen to exactly what happened here or read the article below.
Shout out to the @premium support team (@nikitabier – this needs more exposure).
BE SAFE EVERYONE. https://t.co/u6cMy8Dirq pic.twitter.com/HwZZvaTuc5
— Benjamin (@HalloBenWhite) April 1, 2026
Under the new guidelines, X can now automatically lock an account that mentions crypto for the first time and enforce additional checks before it can post again. Bier’s argues that this should largely negate the incentive, effectively rendering newly hijacked or newly established accounts useless to scammers.
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Updates and Details on the Crypto “Kill Switch”
In another post the same day, Bier explained how suspensions work and reiterated that some financial scams are “rampant” on the platform.
For context:
All suspensions are determined by the policy team; no one, including myself, has unilateral decision-making power. That said:
• This was posted on March 31st, not April 1st
• Fake financial scams with the X trademark are widespread on this platform
• To ask…— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 1, 2026
Bier also replied to a concerned user who inquired about “community-mention spam attacks” (where accounts tag many people at the same time to promote cryptocurrencies) and assured that such activities should now be blocked on the site as well.
That community mention spam attack should be blocked as of yesterday afternoon.
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 1, 2026
The platform will also detect fraudulent memecoin activities. Yesterday, Bier corrected a now-deleted Community Note explaining that “it’s always a hack” when a high-profile account with no prior relationship with crypto suddenly drops a memecoin. The social network will now require verification of account ownership in such cases.
Wrong.
If you have more than 10,000 followers and you drop a meme coin without any prior connection to crypto, it’s always a hack.
We will detect this and require verification of account ownership – to reduce the incentive to phish X accounts.
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 2, 2026
The usual playbook for these types of scams includes phishing emails masquerading as copyright or security alerts, fake login pages, stealing passwords and 2FA, and then using captured X accounts to destroy scam links and tokens. The
A long battle against scammers
The social network has in the past taken legal action against banned users, including crypto fraudsters, who tried to bribe employees to restore suspended accounts, describing this as part of a wider criminal network. X’s Global Government Affairs account publicly described this as “strong action against a bribery network targeting our platform,” explicitly linking it to suspended crypto scam accounts.
X has exposed a bribery network targeting our platform and is taking strong action. Suspended accounts involved in crypto fraud and platform manipulation paid intermediaries in an attempt to bribe employees to reinstate their suspended accounts. These perpetrators exploit social…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) September 19, 2025
Regulators specifically criticized The European Union has fined the social network €120 million under the Digital Services Act late last year, in part because paid blue-check verification “misleads” users about authenticity and exposes them to scams and impersonation.
Related reading
The new measure to automatically lock new crypto posters will reduce monetization of hijacked accounts, increase costs for scammers and could significantly reduce opportunistic phishing campaigns. On the other hand, legitimate crypto newcomers, small makers, and journalists may encounter friction, false positives, or temporary silence just as they try to start the conversation.
At the moment of writing, BTC trades for almost $67k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.
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