Original author: Bitpush News
In the early morning of June 17th, Beijing time, the X (formerly Twitter) platform once again experienced a large-scale account ban incident, and the official account of the popular Meme token platform Pump.fun and its co-founder Alon was not spared. This was another large-scale account ban after the June 12th. Dozens of crypto KOLs and project accounts, including the GMGN ecosystem core account and the Bloom Trading team, were banned simultaneously. A banning storm against the crypto industry is sweeping across X.
According to community tracking, in addition to Pump.fun, a large number of GMGN-related accounts and other independent KOL and project accounts have been banned.
These include:
GMGN related accounts:
@gmgnai
@haze 0x (Founder)
@arthur_gmgn (Co-founder)
@Ga__ke (linked account)
@brc20 niubi (associated account)
@Wolfy_XBT (linked account)
@0x cryptowizard (linked accounts)
@ivyflame (Team Member)
@gmgnaiJapanese
Bloom related accounts:
@BloomTrading
@imBFFF 00 (Team member)
@nftraian (Team Member)
@CookerFlips (Partner)
@vibe d3 33 (linked account)
Other blocked accounts:
@bullx_io
@ElizaOS (Team)
@shawmakesmagic
@uxento
@Nuotrix_
In-depth analysis of community comments and reasons
Although the X platform has not yet given a clear official explanation, there are many speculations and analyses circulating in the community, trying to explain the reasons behind this large-scale account ban:
1. Serious violation of API usage regulations, X platform strictly cracks down on black market data acquisition: Analysts pointed out that some crypto applications such as Pump.fun, GMGN, Bloom and Uxento use Twitter trackers and snipers (tools that can quickly track tweets or wallets). However, these tools do not obtain data directly from X platform through legal channels, but allegedly use black market or shared APIs - unofficial or unauthorized methods of accessing X platform data.
X platform has begun to crack down on such behavior. There is a precedent that another tool, WuupX, received a cease and desist letter for violating Twitters terms of service. Now, other accounts using similar settings have also begun to be banned. This unauthorized data acquisition method is considered to be a touch of the cake of X platform, because Xs official API fees for enterprises are as high as $42,000 per month. Unauthorized use for data crawling is very likely to violate the platforms terms of service and is considered abnormal access behavior or abuse of system resources.
2. Platform manipulation and spam: @sakakimay 1995 and other users analyzed that some of the blocked accounts, especially ElizaOS and GMGN, may have an automatic publishing framework (agents automatically post on X), or generate a large amount of homogeneous content to guide users to buy Meme coins. This kind of mass-generated, structurally similar content and lack of sufficient user interaction can easily be judged as spam or platform manipulation by the platform.
3. Allegations of “excessive withdrawal of liquidity” and potential fraud mechanisms: Crypto KOL Mary (@MaryWynnReal) pointed out that the founder of Pump.fun was banned by X, which may be related to an abnormal situation called “Liquidity Harvesting 2.0”. Mary said that this is an alleged mechanism by which funds in user wallets mysteriously disappear and reappear in suspicious wallets.
She also mentioned that the move came hours after the platform’s internal review suggested that it may have “accidentally over-innovated in financial concepts.” In addition, the Pump.fun homepage was nicknamed “Slot Machine of DeFi” by users, a name that allegedly attracted the attention of “regulatory interns who have little time and only a superficial understanding of crypto memes.”
4. Rumors about the AutoRug feature: Marys comments further revealed that an insider said that the founder of Pump.fun had been developing a new feature called AutoRug, which is designed to save time for developers and exit liquidity participants (i.e. high-level buyers). A Telegram administrator described it this way: Its really efficient. You publish a token, it Rugs itself, and then you receive a push notification. Its like Uber Eats, but it provides financial desperation.
5. Potential multi-jurisdictional violations: In addition to the “minor violation” of Rule X, the suspension may also be related to alleged violations in four jurisdictions, suggesting that the incident may involve a wider legal or regulatory level.
6. Rectification of Meme coin promotion accounts: Another view is that this wave of account closures may be a centralized rectification of accounts that frequently publish various Meme token contract addresses (CA) by the X platform. Considering the high risk of the Meme coin market and potential market manipulation (for example, the Pump.fun platform has a revenue of $1 billion in 2024, but only 0.4% of wallets are profitable, and 80% of Meme coins have plummeted), the X platform may be strengthening supervision of the promotion of such high-risk financial products.
7. Relatively far-fetched speculation: There are also some more far-fetched speculations, such as the release of Trump or Musks emoticons, but this is generally not considered to be the main reason.
Community response and Pump.fun current status
The incident happened suddenly and on a large scale, causing many KOLs and project owners to have doubts about the content supervision mechanism of the X platform. The blocked accounts are appealing one after another. As of the time of writing, the Pump.fun official website and other channels are still active. The community discussion on this large-scale account blocking is still fermenting, and more details and the official response of the X platform remain to be seen.
