Nikita Bier, Head of Product at Elon Musk’s social media company X (formerly known as Twitter), announced new initiatives aimed at curbing crypto scams on the platform. In a post from Wednesday, Bier outlined plans to implement auto-locking and verification for users posting about cryptocurrencies for the first time in their account history. This move is intended to deter malicious activities, according to Bier, who mentioned that this should neutralize 99% of the incentive for scammers, especially given Google’s lack of action against phishing emails.
The new feature would potentially lock a profile and require user authentication if it suddenly posts about crypto for the first time. Bier believes this could discourage bad actors from hijacking accounts to promote fraudulent tokens. He noted that scams involving crypto token promotions or fake X-trademarked offers are widespread, along with community mention spam attacks where users are tagged in posts promoting a crypto token.
Interestingly, Bier’s announcement about reducing crypto scams occurred just hours before an impersonation scam misled numerous news outlets and individuals into believing the demise of Jonathan, a nearly 200-year-old tortoise, to subsequently promote a Solana meme coin themed around the world’s oldest land mammal. While it remains unclear how the auto-locking feature would have intervened in this instance, Bier later stated that X will flag meme coin activities from accounts with significant followers lacking prior crypto connections.
“If an account with over 10K followers promotes a meme coin without any previous link to crypto, it’s typically a hack,” Bier commented on Thursday. Despite inquiries from Decrypt regarding how the feature would evaluate the authenticity of first-time crypto posts, X’s representative did not provide immediate details.
Historically, X has been targeted by malicious actors who have accessed prominent accounts—including those of former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Kanye West, and current owner Musk—to push crypto scams. In September, X pursued legal action against some banned scammers attempting to bribe their way back onto the platform.