Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Golem (@web 3_golem)

The crypto KOLs active on the X platform are in an uproar.

The reason is that on March 1, the X platform updated its paid partnership policy, which mainly consists of two core changes. First, the disclosure requirement for posts published by KOLs under paid partnerships has changed from needing to include the “#ad” tag to needing to enable the “paid partnership” disclosure label; second, for non-compliant paid partnership posts, the reporting channel has been changed from sending emails to anonymously filling out a report form.

In addition to these two core changes, the X platform also had a mishap during this policy update. In the new list of prohibited industries for paid partnership promotions, the community noticed that “cryptocurrency” was unexpectedly included. Just as the crypto KOLs were preparing to collectively criticize the X platform for intending to marginalize the crypto industry, X product head Nikita Bier stated that this change was a mistake and that categories such as “financial products” and “cryptocurrency” have been removed from the prohibited promotion list (Australia, the EU, and the UK still do not allow promotions).

Subsequently, Nikita Bier clarified that the “paid partnership” label is not aimed at the crypto industry or prediction markets, but rather to strengthen the commercial content disclosure mechanism. While X encourages creators to engage in commercial collaborations with third-party brands, undisclosed paid promotional content still undermines product integrity and weakens users' trust in the content. The new feature can help fans clearly distinguish between commercial collaborations and organic content.

While the misunderstanding has been quelled, the two core changes in the X paid partnership regulations still apply to the crypto industry, and the impact of these changes is just beginning to emerge, causing anxiety among crypto KOLs...

The Era of Hidden Advertising Dividends for Crypto KOLs is Over

How much can a crypto KOL earn for sending a post to a project party? This topic often sparks discussion in the community, primarily because it is a highly opaque income model with substantial individual variance. The pricing system for crypto KOLs has no public standard, and project parties typically price based on factors such as KOL fan base size, vertical attributes, content influence, and price-driving ability; sometimes, project parties pay certain KOLs simply because the boss likes them.

According to Odaily, Binance quoted $5000 a month for a well-known crypto KOL with over 30,000 fans, stipulating that the KOL must publish promotional posts for Binance every month and include exclusivity clauses, meaning they are not allowed to promote other exchanges.

It's not just the KOLs with tens of thousands of fans who can receive sponsorship from exchanges; one crypto KOL with 5000 fans revealed that OKX pays them $600 a month for advertising, requiring at least four promotional posts for OKX to be published each month, and their personal introduction and background must contain elements of OKX.

Apart from long-term agreements with exchanges, crypto KOLs often receive single advertisements from project parties, typically types like event promotional posts, market research analysis posts, or direct call posts. These content types show even greater pricing variance among different KOLs; for example, during bullish markets, meme project founders, wanting KOLs with "price influence" to post buy-calls, will often offer not just thousands of dollars in advertising but also directly gift tokens to their private addresses.

The diversity of these collaborative methods has made KOLs a career target for many in the crypto world, but all of this may soon become a mirage. With the changes in X's paid partnership policies, the dividend era for crypto KOLs is over.

The new regulations on paid partnerships from X clearly state that paid promotional posts published by crypto KOLs must carry the “paid partnership” label, which means that the hidden advertisements that once flooded crypto users' timelines will no longer exist. As Nikita Bier mentioned, creators must clearly disclose paid promotional content as a responsibility to fans; in short videos and other content industries, it's quite normal for creators to include “clear ads” in their content.

However, in the crypto industry, it's a taboo for KOLs to explicitly state that they are getting paid to promote a project.

First, the paying project parties themselves are unlikely to accept “clear ads.” If a post is clearly perceived by readers as a paid “puff piece,” then regardless of how objective the content, the project's actual strength will be questioned. Therefore, when KOLs promote a token/project, they're typically required to use a tone that suggests “self-research, self-belief.”

Imagine, in the future to comply with X's requirements, if KOLs label their paid promotional posts with “paid partnership,” will “hidden research ads” become “recommendation clear ads,” and will fans blindly follow along and buy?

Second, KOLs themselves may not dare to accept “clear ads.” The crypto industry is one of the closest industries to money, and the research behaviors and information acquisition of crypto users feedback directly to trading decisions. When KOLs shout a buy for a certain project and fans profit, they attribute their success to the KOL; when they incur losses, blame quickly falls on the KOL for misleading them. This emotional reversal has become the norm.

If fans bought in because they saw KOLs' “paid partnership” posts, they are likely to view that as evidence that the KOL is colluding with the project party to rob them, damaging the KOL's reputation at best, or prompting fans to seek redress at worst. KOLs cannot take that risk.

Now, if a KOL thinks: as long as I disguise my promotional post as my own research, and do not add the “paid partnership” label—will I be found out? The second core change in X's paid partnership policy, changing the reporting channel from email to anonymous report forms, uses the power of the masses to catch any fish that slips through the net.

KOLs Being Cornered

Users only need to enter the online reporting form, fill in the username of the crypto KOL they want to report and the corresponding post, to complete the report, all within under a minute. According to X's latest rules, if a KOL is reported and found in violation, they will face tiered penalties.

First-time violations or minor violations will restrict the visibility of the violating posts, removing them from search results and recommendations, limiting likes, replies, and reposts, while requiring the KOL to delete the violating posts; if there are multiple violations, the KOL's account will be set to read-only mode, restricting posting, reposting, and commenting functions, and will require KOLs to undergo KYC verification; if the platform deems it a serious violation, the account may be directly banned.

Several crypto KOLs have already fallen victim. On March 2, crypto KOL Eva Shutie (X: @EvaCmore) posted that her account was banned due to violating X's new paid partnership terms, but fortunately, after deleting the post as requested, the account was restored. Her subsequent post indicates that due to the risk of being reported, she may not share projects for free in the future.

X's new regulations are not just aimed at the Chinese crypto circle; the X account of overseas crypto KOL Ashley (X: @AshleyDCan), who has 190,000 fans, was also banned on March 1, as X required the deletion of a post she made on February 27 promoting OKX without disclosing a “paid partnership.” Currently, Ashley has made it clear in her profile that she has a paid partnership with both OKX and Polymarket.

X required Ashley to delete the post promoting OKX.

According to X's new “Paid Promotion Partnership Policy,” paid promotions primarily include the following four scenarios:

• Products or services gifted by the brand or a representative of the brand;
• Creators receive compensation for promoting these products or services through cash payments or in-kind donations;
• Products or services provide creators with commissions through sales (such as through affiliate links or discount codes);
• Creators have signed commercial agreements with these products or services, such as serving as brand ambassadors.

However, the above definitions remain quite general; specifically in the crypto industry, what kind of content would be banned if it does not carry the “paid partnership” label? Where lies the boundary between natural research content and paid partnership posts? These questions remain unclear, and after being reported, more depends on X's backend AI review or direct human judgment. Worse, the asymmetry of accountability in the reporting mechanism objectively amplifies the risk of misuse.

The crypto industry is already a dark forest; when the cost of reporting decreases and the reporters face no risks, crypto KOLs become naked targets, exposed to attacks.

Prior to this, there have been instances of maliciously inflating KOLs' followers or evaluations and then reporting them, leading to their accounts being banned. Now, those who trust investment advice and incur losses can bulk report the ambiguous content that crypto KOLs (formerly) published between paid and unpaid. As long as a sufficient number of accounts report simultaneously, it could increase the likelihood of the KOL being punished by the platform. Even if it's not malicious reporting, there remains the possibility of being wrongfully targeted by users.

The effects of the new rules will ultimately reflect on the income of crypto KOLs. The diverse soft advertisements that KOLs previously collaborated on with project parties are no longer viable. Some major KOLs are collectively creating memes to protest the new paid content policies of the X platform by identifying “paid partnerships” within abstract content.

The “abstract protest” of crypto KOLs.

However, there are also views suggesting that crypto KOLs should “fight fire with fire” by labeling all future posts as “paid partnerships,” thus desensitizing users.

Will Crypto KOLs Move Again?

The incentive mechanism is core to social platforms retaining quality content creators. In 2025, X plans to continue expanding its revenue sharing scale for platform content creators, with officials claiming that the revenue distribution for 2025 has set a record high since the launch of the profit plan, and that the shared revenue scale will continue to increase in 2026, with 2026 being termed the “Year of Creators.”

Some crypto KOLs also frequently share the "salaries" from Musk each month on their accounts, ranging from dozens to thousands of dollars. However, after the release of X's new paid partnership advertising regulations, the importance of this income has declined as crypto KOLs may lose larger sources of income.

People in the crypto world will never sit idle. Due to changes in the domestic regulatory environment between 2021-2022, Weibo banned a large number of crypto accounts and prohibited the posting of crypto-related content; subsequently, crypto KOLs chose Twitter (now X) as their new crypto battleground, establishing a project marketing/distribution model around the "project party-agency-KOL" chain over the following years.

Now, with the shrinking space for crypto KOLs due to changes in X's content policies, where can they migrate to? The answer may be social platforms like Binance Square. (Sincerely disclosed: this is not a paid advertisement.)

In 2025, relying on the continuous growth of Binance Exchange, along with CZ and He Yi’s traffic generation and content mining mechanisms, the daily active users and total users of Binance Square have seen significant growth. Although its current main task is still to attract crypto creators from X, it has also cultivated a loyal user base.

I previously pointed out when Farcaster announced its shift to wallet services (Farcaster has been acquired by Neynar) that exchanges have a unique advantage in building crypto social products, as trading naturally creates scenarios and desires for communication. In that article, I assessed that the inclusivity towards crypto users is the core competitiveness of exchange social products against X; when X implements unfavorable policies for crypto content creators, a large-scale migration of crypto KOLs, as seen five years ago, may happen again, and it would only be a matter of time before a new project party-KOL distribution system is built around exchange social products. (Related reading: Farcaster Turns Away, “Binance Square” Takes Over Crypto Social)

If crypto KOLs truly flee X, X will not lose anything, or rather, the X platform will not do anything to retain the crypto group. Because looking at the entire Internet, the crypto circle is just a very small information cocoon, and its collapse will not have a significant negative impact on the platform.

The recent update of X's paid partnership policy is not specifically aimed at crypto KOLs; it is simply that the unique attributes of the crypto industry happened to run into the crosshairs.

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