Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Golem (@web 3_golem)
Crypto KOLs active on the X platform are collectively up in arms.
The reason is that on March 1st, the X platform updated its paid partnership policy, which includes two core changes. First, the disclosure requirement for posts published by KOLs as paid partnerships has been changed from mandatory inclusion of the "#ad" hashtag to mandatory enabling of the "Paid Partnership" disclosure label. Second, for non-compliant paid partnership posts, the reporting channel has been changed from sending an email to anonymous submission of a report form.
Besides these two core changes, the X platform also had a mix-up during this policy update. In the new list of restricted industries prohibited for paid partnership promotions on the X platform, the community was surprised to find "Cryptocurrency" included. Just as crypto KOLs were preparing to collectively criticize the X platform for intentionally marginalizing the crypto industry, X's product lead Nikita Bier posted, stating that this change was an operational error, and that categories such as "financial products, cryptocurrency" had already been removed from the prohibited promotion industry list (promotions are still not allowed in Australia, the EU, and the UK).
Subsequently, Nikita Bier posted again to clarify that the "Paid Partnership" label is not targeted at the crypto industry or prediction markets, but rather to strengthen the disclosure mechanism for commercial content. Although the X platform encourages creators to engage in business collaborations with third-party brands, undisclosed paid promotional content can still damage the integrity of the product and weaken user trust in the content. The new feature helps fans clearly distinguish between commercial collaborations and organic content.
Although the misunderstanding was resolved, the two core changes in X's new paid partnership rules still apply to the crypto industry, and the impact of these changes is just beginning to emerge, causing quite a stir and making crypto KOLs nervous......
The End of the Crypto KOLs' Era of Hidden Ad Benefits
How much money can a crypto KOL make by posting a single post for a project? This topic often sparks discussion in the community, primarily because it's a highly opaque income model with vast individual differences. There is no public standard for the pricing system of crypto KOLs. Project parties usually price based on factors such as the KOL's follower count, vertical niche attributes, content influence, and price-driving ability. Sometimes, a project might pay a KOL simply because the boss likes them.
According to Odaily, Binance offered a well-known crypto KOL with over 30,000 followers $5,000 per month, stipulating that the KOL must post a sufficient number of promotional posts for Binance each month, along with an exclusivity clause prohibiting them from posting content promoting other exchanges.
It's not only KOLs with tens of thousands of followers who can get sponsorships from exchanges. A crypto KOL with 5,000 followers revealed that OKX offered them $600 per month in advertising fees, requiring at least 4 promotional posts for OKX per month, with personal bios and backgrounds都必须 containing OKX elements.
Besides long-term signed contracts with exchanges, crypto KOLs often receive single-post advertisements from project parties, roughly categorized as event promotion posts, research analysis posts, or direct shilling posts, etc. The pricing for these types of content varies even more significantly between different KOLs. For example, during good market conditions, meme project "local bosses," wanting influential KOLs to post shills, would not only thousands of dollars in advertising fees but also directly send tokens to their private addresses.
The substantial benefits brought by these diverse cooperation methods once made becoming a KOL a career goal for many in the crypto circle, but all this might become a thing of the past. With the changes to X's paid partnership policy, the golden era for crypto KOLs is over.
X's new paid partnership rules clearly require that paid promotional posts published by crypto KOLs must carry the "Paid Partnership" label. This means the hidden ads that previously flooded crypto users' timelines will no longer exist. As Nikita Bier said, creators clearly disclosing paid promotional content is responsible to their fans. In the short video and other content industries, it's also normal for creators to insert "clear ads" in their content.
However, in the crypto industry, a KOL clearly stating they are paid to promote a project is a major taboo.
First, the paying project parties themselves often cannot accept "clear ads." If a post is clearly seen by readers as a paid "praise piece," then no matter how objective the content is, the project's real strength will be questioned. Therefore, KOLs promoting a token/project are usually required to adopt a style of "their own research, their own看好 (optimism)".
Imagine, in the future, to comply with X's requirements, KOLs' paid promotion posts all add the "Paid Partnership" label. "Research-based hidden ads" turn into "recommendation clear ads." Will fans still blindly follow and buy?
Second, KOLs themselves are also reluctant to take on "clear ads." The crypto industry is one closest to money. Crypto users' research behaviors and information acquisition are highly directly feedback into trading decisions. Seeing a KOL shill a project and then buying, profits are credited to the KOL, losses are quickly blamed on their misleading—this emotional reversal has become the norm.
If fans buy in because they see a "Paid Partnership" post between a KOL and a project, it will most likely be seen as evidence of the KOL colluding with the project party to rug pull. At best, the KOL's reputation is ruined; at worst, fans seek维权 (rights protection). KOLs cannot take this risk.
What if a KOL thinks: just disguise the project promotion post as their own research as usual, and don't add the "Paid Partnership" label—can it be discovered? The second core change in X's paid partnership policy, changing the reporting channel from email to anonymous form submission, is precisely to use the power of the masses to catch those who slip through the net.
The Cornered KOLs
Users only need to go to the online reporting form, fill in the username of the crypto KOL to be reported and the corresponding post, to complete the report. The whole process takes less than 1 minute. According to X's latest rules, if a KOL is reported and the violation is confirmed, tiered penalties will be applied.
First-time or minor violations will restrict the visibility of the violating post, removing it from search results and recommendations, restricting interactions like likes, replies, and quote retweets, while also requiring the KOL to delete the violating post; for multiple violations, the KOL's account will be set to read-only mode, restricting functions like posting, retweeting, and commenting, and KYC verification will be required; if the platform determines it's a severe violation, the account may be directly suspended.
Several crypto KOLs have already been affected. On March 2nd, crypto KOL Eva 树姐 (X:@EvaCmore) posted that her account was suspended for violating X's new paid partnership terms, but fortunately, it returned to normal after being required to delete the post. She later posted saying that due to the risk of being reported, she might not share projects anymore for free.
X's new rules are not only targeting the Chinese crypto circle. On March 1st, overseas crypto KOL Ashley (X:@AshleyDCan) with 190k followers also had her X account suspended. The platform required her to delete a post from February 27th promoting OKX without disclosing the "Paid Partnership." Currently, in Ashley's personal bio, she has clearly disclosed her paid partnerships with OKX and Polymarket.
X requires Ashley to delete the post promoting OKX
According to X's new 《Paid Promotion Partnership Policy》, paid promotion mainly includes the following four scenarios:
- The product or service was gifted by the brand or a brand representative;
- The creator received compensation for promoting these products or services through cash payment or payment in kind;
- The product or service generates commission for the creator through sales (e.g., via affiliate links or discount codes);
- The creator has a business agreement with these products or services, such as serving as a brand ambassador.
However, the above definitions are still quite principle-based. Specifically for the crypto industry, what kind of content will get you suspended if you don't use the "Paid Partnership" label? Where is the boundary between natural research content and paid partnership posts? These questions remain unclear. After being reported, it relies more on X's backend AI review or direct human judgment. Worse, the rights and responsibilities in the reporting mechanism are asymmetric, objectively amplifying the risk of abuse.
The crypto industry is already a dark forest. When the cost of reporting becomes low and the reporter bears no risk, crypto KOLs become naked targets,任由 (allowing) anyone to snipe.
Even before this, there were examples in the industry of maliciously inflating a KOL's followers and comments and then reporting them, leading to account suspension. Now, anyone who suffered losses after following investment advice can massively report the ambiguous content published by crypto KOLs (previously) that sits between paid and unpaid. As long as enough accounts report simultaneously, the probability of platform penalties increases. Even if not malicious reporting, there is also the possibility of being误杀 (wrongfully killed) by users.
The effect of the new rules will ultimately feedback into the income of crypto KOLs. The various soft ads that KOLs and project parties collaborated on before are no longer feasible. Some major KOLs are collectively making abstract memes,标识 (labeling) "Paid Partnership" on abstract content as a form of protest against X平台's new paid content policy.
Crypto KOLs' "Abstract Protest"
However, some also believe that crypto KOLs should "fight poison with poison" and label "Paid Partnership" on all posts published hereafter, so users will eventually become desensitized to it.
Are Crypto KOLs Migrating Again?
Incentive mechanisms are core to social platforms retaining high-quality content creators. In 2025, X continued to expand the scale of revenue sharing for platform content creators. According to official statements, the 2025 profit distribution amount has already set a record high since the profit-sharing program launched. Simultaneously, 2026 will continue to increase the shared profit scale, dubbing 2026 the "Year of the Creator."
Some crypto KOLs often share the "salary" Musk sends them monthly in their accounts, ranging from tens to thousands of dollars. But after X's new paid partnership advertising rules were released, the importance of this income has diminished, because crypto KOLs might lose a larger source of income.
Crypto people never sit still. From 2021-2022, due to changes in the domestic regulatory environment, Weibo大规模 (large-scale) banned crypto accounts and prohibited publishing crypto-related content. Subsequently, crypto KOLs chose Twitter (now X) as the new crypto base and built a project marketing/promotion model around Twitter in the following years—the "project party-agency-KOL" chain.
Now, when X's content policy changes compress the living space of crypto KOLs, where can they migrate to? The answer might be exchange social platforms like Binance Square. (Sincere disclosure: This is not a paid ad.)
In 2025, relying on the continuous growth of the Binance exchange, coupled with CZ He Yi's引流 (traffic directing) and content mining mechanisms, Binance Square's daily active users and user count saw significant growth. Although its main task is still to poach crypto creators from the X platform, it has already accumulated a group of loyal users.
Previously, when I pointed out that Farcaster announced its shift to wallet business (Farcaster has been acquired by Neynar), exchanges building crypto social products have inherent advantages—trading naturally creates scenarios and desires for communication. In the article, I also judged that inclusivity towards crypto users is the core competitiveness of exchange social products against X. When X implements policies unfavorable to crypto content creators, the large-scale migration of crypto KOLs 5 years ago might happen again. And building a new project party-KOL promotion system around exchange social products is only a matter of time. (Related reading:Farcaster Pivots, 'Binance Square' and Others Take Over Crypto Social)
If crypto KOLs really flee X, X won't lose much, or rather, the X platform won't do much more to retain the crypto group. Because looking at the entire internet, the crypto circle is just a very small information cocoon. Its collapse wouldn't have a significant negative impact on the platform.
X's current paid partnership policy update is not specifically targeting crypto KOLs; it's just that the unique attributes of the crypto industry happened to be in the crosshairs.
