InfoFi hit hard by X policy shift…Kaito and CookieDAO halt reward models

Social media platform X has imposed a blanket ban on post-to-earn applications, pushing the broader InfoFi project landscape into a structural crisis. The move explains why Kaito and CookieDAO—both of which have used X data to pay users for posting activity—have moved in quick succession to suspend existing services and overhaul business strategies.

On the 15th (local time), Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said, “We will no longer allow apps where users get paid to post on X,” adding that “AI-generated content and comment spam have surged across the platform.” X has consequently revoked API access for related applications, saying the step is aimed at improving user experience and content quality.

Kaito, one of the biggest casualties of the decision, said it will shut down its existing reward service “Yaps” and its incentive-based leaderboard, and pivot to a new business model, “Kaito Studio.” Kaito said Yaps was “an experimental model designed to reward users and creators who helped spread brand awareness.”

Still, despite various policy tweaks over the past year, Kaito concluded there were structural limits to fixing low-quality content and spam. “As X’s algorithm changed and other InfoFi projects introduced low-friction reward models, the deterioration in content quality across crypto persisted,” the company said.

After discussions with X, Kaito added it had concluded that “a fully permissionless reward distribution system is no longer sustainable and does not align with high-quality brands and creators, or with the direction of the X platform.”

CookieDAO also immediately shut down its reward-based creator campaign platform “Snaps” in the wake of X’s API policy change. “We have decided to suspend the Snaps platform and all ongoing creator campaigns,” CookieDAO said, calling it “an unavoidable choice to protect the integrity of our data layer and products.”

CookieDAO said it halted Snaps after discussing API and usage policies with X, and that whether the service could resume in a new form will depend on X’s guidelines. “We believe we have complied with X policies,” the company said, adding that “the InfoFi model itself is at a critical turning point.”

It added, “For campaigns where costs have already been incurred or rewards were promised, we will work with each project individually to reach fair outcomes,” and noted that CookieDAO’s other data and analytics products are unaffected. Its real-time market intelligence service “Cookie Pro” is still slated to launch as planned.

The industry sees the episode as exposing the structural limits of the InfoFi model. While it has touted decentralization, it has in practice relied heavily on centralized platforms’ data access and policy shifts—something this case has once again underscored. Some also argue that for InfoFi to establish itself as a “Web3 model,” it will need a new execution architecture that reduces dependence on centralized platforms.