The collective account bans in the crypto circle that haven't been seen in years have reappeared, not on Weibo, but on Musk's free speech platform X.

Currently banned accounts in the crypto circle include the official gmgn account and its founder, the official eliza account and its founder, as well as a number of well-known crypto KOLs.

Possible reasons for the bans

First, learn from history; there have been many instances of individual accounts being banned on X, such as Trump or the well-known CSW (Craig Wright) in the crypto circle, but mass bans are very rare.

There was a previous incident in 2021, the Capitol Hill incident, where tens of thousands of accounts supporting Trump were banned. After Musk took over X at the end of 2022, he cleaned up a large number of fake accounts or impersonation accounts, as well as many bot accounts, primarily focused on eliminating those beneficial to himself and aligned with political directions.

So, one perspective on this batch of bans is that it was due to a political meme, as shown in the image below. This meme clearly stirs up the potential reconciliation between Trump and Musk, as both sides have expressed goodwill in their statements. Some believe that Musk does not like this meme and has banned the related accounts.

However, this reason is clearly untenable. First of all, it’s not only these few accounts that posted this meme; some banned accounts didn't even post related memes, and many other accounts that posted images on X were not banned.

There is also a viewpoint suggesting that this ban is basically related to GMGN, as GMGN has been using crawlers to heavily scrape a large number of tweets on X. But this reasoning is also somewhat flawed; after all, so many InfoFi projects are honestly using X's API, and most are also crawlers, but these projects' accounts have not been banned.

Rhythm BlockBeats also asked the banned Haze, who stated that he currently does not know the specific reason and is waiting for a response from X.

Coincidentally, Musk tweeted on June 10 that X's algorithm has been adjusted again and is heavily using Grok, so we asked Grok about this ban incident.

Grok listed some possible reasons:

1. User Reports: Some posts claim that a certain user used quantitative bots to report Chinese cryptocurrency accounts in bulk, accusing them of 'buying low and selling high' or ambushing with small wallets while cutting profits with large wallets. This could lead to algorithmic misjudgment as 'platform manipulation' or 'spam'.

2. Content Patterns: Banned accounts frequently mention specific crypto projects (such as ai16z, ElizaOS) or interact with GMGN, which may be identified by algorithms as 'inducement promotion' or 'potential fraud'. X is sensitive to cryptocurrency content as it often involves high-risk investments or scams.

3. Algorithmic Misjudgment: Grok's enhanced automated detection may be overly sensitive to accounts that post frequently or follow similar patterns (such as meme coin promotion), leading to wrongful bans. Historical cases show that cryptocurrency accounts have been temporarily banned for being misclassified as spam.

Will it follow in the footsteps of Weibo?

This recent banning of cryptocurrency user accounts on Twitter easily brings to mind the mass bans of crypto KOL users on Weibo in 2018 and 2021, such as accounts from Jinse Finance, Huobi News, Coin World, @ Super Bitcoin, @ Trader Xiaoxia, @ Lan Shao CX, @ Master Li Tony, @ Bitcoin Caesar, @ Fat House Bitcoin, etc. The relevant pages show that these accounts have been banned due to complaints of violating laws and regulations and (Weibo community guidelines) and are no longer viewable.

After the banning incident occurred, crypto KOLs on Weibo could only shift the battlefield to Twitter. Under an extremely opaque review system, many content creators were 'uprooted', and Weibo has gradually retreated from the center of crypto industry discourse.

It is against this backdrop that Twitter has become an important stronghold for the Chinese crypto community. Compared to Weibo’s closed review system, Twitter, with its openness and brand narrative of free expression, has provided a safe haven for a large number of crypto KOLs and project parties. However, this safe haven seems to be losing its protective power as the AI-driven content governance system (such as Grok) becomes more deeply deployed, making X's banning actions more systematic, automated, and harder to hold accountable.

In contrast, the X platform is not a government-led content review; rather, it is gradually sliding towards a new centralized information control model under the logic of depersonalization and algorithmic governance. In this mechanism, even if the platform does not directly intervene in content judgment, it may exacerbate misjudgments, amplify public opinion attacks, and abandon manual reviews, thereby creating a more opaque environment for expression.

Related reading: (The world hates the current social media)

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

However, in the face of an increasingly reinforced technical blockade logic and a severe regulatory environment, it seems foreseeable that content creators will turn to decentralized social platforms with greater freedom of account ownership.

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

1. Avoid High-Frequency Promotion: Reduce frequent mentions of specific projects or contract addresses (CA) to avoid being misjudged as inducement content.

2. Compliance Posting: Ensure that content does not involve exaggerated earnings or misleading statements and complies with X's advertising and financial product policies.

3. Security Measures: Enable two-factor authentication (2FA), regularly check account permissions to prevent being exploited by hackers leading to bans.

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

BlockBeats will also continue to monitor this matter to bring reliable news to readers in a timely manner.