Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Ethan (@ethanzhangweb3)_
On January 22, the X platform updated its "Global Trends" page. Following a series of adjustments regarding content and incentive mechanisms, Odaily Planet Daily found that the platform has added a separate Meme category section. Various memes, funny images, and short videos are presented in this section, allowing users to directly observe the current Meme themes and emotional trends spreading both on and off the platform.
At first glance, this seems more like an entertainment-focused content organization. However, when placed within the context of X's recent intensive content governance actions, the emergence of this Meme section appears less "lightweight."
In X's product logic, content is being re-layered: distinguishing between what constitutes emotional expression and what is considered information assets. The platform is beginning to provide clearer boundaries through its interface and categorization.
It is against this backdrop that X has recently tightened creator incentives and API usage rules, clearly stating that replies and interactions will no longer count towards earnings, ultimately targeting the InfoFi application model that relies on external incentives to drive posting and interaction. In the crypto community, this series of changes has quickly been interpreted as a signal— the platform is no longer willing to cede space for "high interaction, low information density" content paths.
From the detail of Meme being singled out, it is evident that X's adjustment is not merely about shutting down old mechanisms but is simultaneously building a new content order.
Why has "reply farming" become ineffective? X's answer is more direct than "traffic limits."
In the past week, X has pointed out through a series of interconnected rule adjustments that X is redefining what behaviors are worthy of valuation.
The change is first reflected in the creator income rules. On January 19, X's product head Nikita Bier explicitly stated in response to user concerns that current creator income is calculated solely based on the views of content on the homepage timeline, and exposure generated from replies will no longer count towards earnings. This is almost equivalent to directly overturning a long-accepted growth logic— interaction itself no longer holds monetization value.
X product head Nikita Bier responds to user concerns on X
Under the new valuation system, whether it is high-frequency replies, concentrated spamming, or relying on low-cost content like "gm" or "+1" to maintain activity, as long as it does not push content onto the homepage timeline, it will no longer be regarded as a valid contribution by the platform.
This change did not occur in isolation. In subsequent explanations, X further supplemented its underlying logic: the actual amount of content an average user can browse daily is extremely limited. Excessive posting and frequent interactions do not expand influence; rather, they prematurely consume the account's exposure quota for the day. When truly important information is released, the account often has "no quota available."
In other words, in X's judgment, excessive interaction is not suppressed but is viewed as an inefficient or even self-destructive behavior pattern.
This stance also echoes Nikita Bier's previous public criticism of the crypto community. In his view, the decline in the influence of crypto tweets is not due to deliberate suppression by the platform's algorithm but rather the community's long-term reliance on low-value interactions leading to self-consumption.
As a result, X has not denied the existence of "reply farming" but has chosen a more direct and calm approach: no longer paying for such behavior.
When reply views are entirely stripped from the incentive system, the content model that "profits from interaction" naturally loses its foundation. The so-called "end of the reply farming era" is not a targeted cleansing but an inevitable result of the adjustment in the valuation system.
The true background of Smart Cashtags: X wants to turn "market sentiment" into a consumable object
While reshaping creator incentive rules, X is also simultaneously advancing another more directional product path—Smart Cashtags.
According to X product head Nikita Bier's public explanation, this feature allows users to directly tag specific tokens or smart contracts when posting content related to market conditions or assets. Users can click on the tags in the timeline to view the real-time price of the corresponding asset and all related discussions on the platform. This feature is still in the testing and feedback phase, and the official has clearly stated that a V1 version will be launched, with a relatively clear expected release date (expected next month).
This means that Smart Cashtags has moved beyond mere concept validation and is entering the final polishing stage before functionality is finalized.
Related tweet and Smart Cashtags testing page
Initially, the community viewed it more as a market tool to enhance user experience. However, as discussions deepened, the focus of skepticism gradually shifted to several more fundamental questions:
—— If the asset has not yet been listed on mainstream exchanges, does X have reliable data coverage capabilities?
—— Is its price and on-chain information solely reliant on centralized exchanges?
—— Will it further extend to wallet or trading execution layers in the future?
In response to the first two questions, Nikita Bier provided a relatively clear response. He stated that the API used by X can "almost process any content minted on-chain in real-time," implying that the data source for Smart Cashtags is not limited to centralized trading platforms but has the capability to directly interface with on-chain information.
However, he did not directly respond to whether it would support self-custody wallets or complete transactions within X through CEX widgets, only using a "follow" emoji to brush it off. This deliberately reserved attitude has instead sparked more speculation in the community about X's next steps.
If we place Smart Cashtags back into X's existing strategic trajectory, this "blank space" is not surprising.
By 2025, X had obtained remittance-related licenses in over 40 states in the U.S. and was simultaneously advancing the compliance construction of the X Money payment system. At that time, these actions were more viewed as part of the "Everything App" narrative, still seeming distant from the content ecosystem.
Entering January 2026, the pace of advancing Smart Cashtags began to clarify: the feature was publicly discussed for the first time, followed by supplementary details on the API layer, accompanied by information leaks regarding compliance and legal aspects. By late January, although still in the testing phase, the official had already released a clear timeline expectation.
Odaily Planet Daily believes this further indicates that Smart Cashtags is not an isolated product attempt but rather X is laying the groundwork for the "content × finance" interface in advance.
When placed alongside adjustments like creator incentive rules and the withdrawal of InfoFi APIs, its positioning becomes clearer: X is not in a hurry to personally intervene in transaction execution but is attempting to compress assets, prices, and market sentiment into a single clickable, traceable content node.
In this structure, the value of content is no longer simply determined by the amount of interaction but depends on whether it can form a continuous, consumable flow of information and narrative around a specific asset. In this sense, Smart Cashtags is not a tool prepared for "reply farming" but rather reserves an entry point for those specific content forms.
After the algorithm is "uncovered," exposure rights have not become more democratic
Beyond Smart Cashtags, another change frequently mentioned by X recently is the official open-sourcing of the recommendation algorithm.
In late January, the X engineering team announced that the latest version of the platform's algorithm has been made public, adopting the same Transformer architecture as the Grok model under xAI. Subsequently, Elon Musk stated that the algorithm is still "quite clumsy," but open-sourcing means users can clearly see its optimization path. For a long time, content being throttled and topics being suppressed were often attributed to "black box algorithms"; however, algorithm transparency at least means that the rules are no longer hidden, and the paths are traceable.
The latest platform algorithm publicly released by X Github repository homepage
However, open-sourcing the algorithm does not mean that exposure rights are distributed equally.
Almost simultaneously, X is advancing a systematic upgrade of the "interest discovery" mechanism. The core goal is to help new accounts find content of interest more quickly without a lengthy process of following and filtering. When organizing the timeline, the algorithm shifts from relying on "who you follow" to "what the system thinks you might want to see."
Within this framework, whether content receives exposure depends on two key criteria: understandability and consumability.
- Understandability: Content has a clear structure, complete information, and is easy for the algorithm to recognize and categorize.
- Consumability: Content can be absorbed, understood, and interacted with by users in a short time, forming an effective information flow.
In other words, exposure rights are no longer determined by "interaction volume," but by whether the content can be efficiently recognized, distributed, and attract an audience by the system. This marks a shift from the previous model of "the more active you are, the more visible you become" to a distribution logic centered on the intrinsic value of the content.
As the platform simultaneously tightens interaction incentives, structures asset narratives, and strengthens interest recommendation mechanisms, a new filtering logic has taken shape. Under such a system, "reply farming" is naturally excluded from the mainstream exposure path, which is no longer surprising.
Conclusion: This is not a crackdown on reply farming, but a repricing of content value
From tightening creator incentive rules, open-sourcing algorithms, to the gradual advancement of the Smart Cashtags feature, and the separate categorization of the Meme section on January 22, X is gradually piecing together a clear path.
Low-value interactions are stripped away, assets and emotions are restructured, and algorithms and interest discovery mechanisms are brought to the forefront—these adjustments collectively point to a core result: the platform is redefining what kind of content is worth distributing, valuing, and seeing.
In the new order, Memes are classified as emotional expressions, while financial and crypto content is required to have clear structure and direction; exposure rights shift from "who is more active" to "who is easier to understand and consume." The platform will no longer pay for noise or mere participation.
As analyzed in a previous article by Odaily Planet Daily, “X personally ends the InfoFi incentive model, the era of reply farming comes to an end”, the end of the reply farming era is not the conclusion but rather the first perceptible signal of X's content value system reconstruction. With the new rules in place, the platform is building a value system that leans more towards the content itself rather than interaction behavior.
For creators and the industry, this means that gaining visibility on X in the future will no longer rely on quantity, but on whether the content can be recognized by the algorithm, absorbed by the audience, and form sustainable value. This new order is both a reclamation of platform sovereignty and a profound reshaping of the content ecosystem.
Related Links:
“Breaking Down X's New Algorithm: The Ultimate Guide to Content Monetization in 2026”
“X Personally Ends the InfoFi Incentive Model, the Era of Reply Farming Comes to an End”
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