The broader cryptocurrency community is in chaos. In the wake of this, X, aka Twitter, has banned the accounts of many notable projects like Pump.fun, ElizaOS and GMGN. The suspensions have now silenced the main communication channels for these platforms. As you can imagine, this extreme move has sent shockwaves through the industry and fueled speculation about why exactly it did so. Users first noticed the accounts were unavailable around 7:30 p.m. UTC, with "user not found" errors appearing.
Suspension Details
The suspensions have specifically hit Pump.fun, a leading Solana-based meme coin launchpad. The company has used X extensively for engaging with their community and making major in-game announcements. This is Pump.fun’s main mode of communication gone. Consequently, users are left with little to no access to progress and news, creating anxiety and uncertainty throughout the community.
The personal X/Twitter accounts of prominent people connected to these projects were similarly suspended. These types of builders include Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen and Eliza Labs leader Shaw Walters, the maker of ElizaOS.
API Restrictions and Speculation
As they await the outcome, industry observers are wondering if these suspensions are a result of X’s banning of third-party APIs in January 2023. Other platforms reportedly coursed through third-party APIs to bypass the high fees associated with X’s proprietary API pipeline. And X’s in-house API tool runs $60,000 per year for you, the startup. This can be a prohibitive price for smaller or less sophisticated projects.
That the way they used third-party APIs—which provided the posting and messaging functionality X eliminated—was in breach of X’s terms of use, causing the account suspensions. This raises critical questions regarding the future of social media marketing strategies deployed by cryptocurrency projects. This is particularly accurate for those who are doing it on the cheap.
Community Reaction and Memecoin Frenzy
The suspensions have set off the storm of reaction among the cryptocurrency community. Even in the first hour after Pump.fun’s account was killed, users were generating and trading memecoins named after the suspension. Transactions of memecoins related to the suspension exceeded $10 million.
The incident is a valuable reminder about the difficulties cryptocurrency projects have to deal with. A regular social media activity holds your community engaged and increases your marketing power. It needs to find its way past some policies and policy-making that’s done on the platforms themselves.
