Nikita Bier, the Head of Product at X (formerly Twitter) and an advisor to Solana, has ignited a firestorm within the cryptocurrency community. Bier publicly criticized what he termed the "spammy" engagement practices of "Crypto Twitter" (CT), arguing that user behavior—not algorithmic bias—is responsible for the community's declining visibility on the platform.
Bier's comments, which were later deleted, suggested that low-effort posts like repetitive "GM" (Good Morning) greetings and engagement-farming tactics are flooding followers' feeds. He contended that each such post consumes one of the limited slots in a user's daily feed, thereby crowding out higher-quality content. This stance was met with immediate and fierce backlash from crypto influencers and community members.
The backlash escalated to calls for Bier's resignation. KALEO, co-founder of LedgArt, directly addressed Bier, stating, "You are failing to support user growth and long-standing online communities. It feels like you are trying to suppress the crypto community on X. You should resign from your product role at X." Other users accused Bier of taking his frustrations with a past advisory role at Solana out on the entire crypto niche.
The controversy coincides with data from CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, which showed a staggering 1,224% spike in bot activity related to crypto posts on X on January 9, reaching 7.75 million posts. This flood of AI-generated spam is believed to have triggered X's algorithms to deprioritize content associated with crypto keywords like "$BTC" and "$ETH" or common phrases such as "100x."
Users report a dramatic drop in reach, with educational threads or chart posts often capped at a few hundred views. This is linked to a December 2025 algorithm update designed to combat spam and bots. Despite the intense community reaction and concerns about effective "shadowbanning," no immediate financial impact has been observed in cryptocurrency markets. The incident highlights the ongoing tension between platform content moderation strategies and community engagement practices, with long-term effects hinging on whether spam reduction can ultimately improve content quality and visibility for legitimate projects.
