Nikita

For months, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/investing/cryptocurrency" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Crypto</a> Twitter felt like it was talking to an empty room. On July 13, that started to change.
X's head of product, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/nikita-bier" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Nikita Bier</a>, announced a change to the platform's algorithm designed to boost the visibility of posts from a user's "mutuals", the accounts they follow who follow them back.&nbsp;
The fix, small in scope but significant in effect, has reignited a community that had spent much of the year convinced it was being shunned by the social media platform it once considered a home.
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<h2 id="a-tweak-with-an-outsized-reaction">A tweak with an outsized reaction</h2>
"We're rolling out a small tweak to boost visibility of your posts to your mutuals," Bier wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 We're rolling out a small tweak to boost visibility of your posts to your mutuals (people who you follow back). We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in the reply section feeling more like a…— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) <a href="https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2076747704248758617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">July 13, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
 "We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in the reply section feeling more like a battleground with people you don't recognize."
</blockquote>
What it does, according to Bier, is help clusters of shared interest form more naturally across the platform, something users have been requesting for some time.&nbsp;In practical terms, it means replies and posts from people you actually follow and engage with are more likely to surface, rather than being drowned out by strangers.
It is part of a broader pattern at X this year. The platform has reworked how it compensates creators to reward original content over aggregation, and earlier this month rolled out a new video editor aimed at making the app more useful for creators.&nbsp;
Rival platform Threads, run by Meta, has been pushing in a similar direction, having introduced a feature called <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2026/02/threads-dear-algo/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Your Algo</a> last month that lets users privately control what appears in their feed, a tool that helped push Threads past 500 million monthly active users.
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<h2 id="why-crypto-users-reacted-the-way-they-did">Why crypto users reacted the way they did</h2>
The muted, almost cautious optimism from most corners of X turned into something closer to celebration within the <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/crypto-community" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">crypto community</a> specifically, including posts from accounts that had gone quiet for months.
That reaction did not come out of nowhere. Since January, when X changed its API policies to cut off apps that paid users to post, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/top-crypto-investor-reveals-bitcoins-only-real-threat" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">crypto</a> accounts on the platform have reported a steady decline in visibility.&nbsp;
The policy change was intended to curb a wave of AI-generated spam and low-quality content flooding crypto feeds through so-called "InfoFi" apps, which rewarded users for engagement regardless of substance.
But in the months that followed, many crypto users noticed something else, their own posts and the posts of accounts they followed seemed to be reaching fewer people, replaced in their feeds by content entirely unrelated to crypto.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/twitter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">X</a> has historically functioned as one of the primary places the crypto industry tracks breaking news, market moves, and emerging projects in real time. Losing that visibility was not a minor inconvenience for many users, it cut them off from a core part of how the industry communicates.
<h2 id="the-pushback-before-the-fix">The pushback before the fix</h2>
Bier had previously waded into the debate directly, and not without controversy.&nbsp;
In a post that was later deleted, he suggested Crypto Twitter's visibility issues were largely self-inflicted, arguing that many accounts burned through their daily reach by overposting or filling replies with low-effort messages, leaving little room for anything substantive to break through.
The response from the crypto community was swift. Many slammed X's approach to how it was handling community-focused content on the platform.
One user's post captured the frustration many in the space had been voicing for months. "When Elon took over this app, he promised to make it great again. And so far, he has made a ton of significant improvements. But this Nikita situation is not one of them," <a href="https://x.com/CryptoKaleo/status/2010336916374470839" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">they wrote</a>.&nbsp;
They argued that Crypto Twitter operates as its own distinct ecosystem, one built around tracking what the community itself cares about rather than trending headlines or viral video content.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 "The X algo used to foster community growth by showing what you and the people you follow care about. Now it serves as a centralized funnel that prioritizes more TikTok-like, dopamine-centric, mindless content," the post continued, closing with a pointed request: "Make communities great again."
</blockquote>
CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju pushed back directly, arguing the real issue was not overposting but X's inability to distinguish legitimate accounts from bot activity.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 This is why "crypto" posts are getting banned by the X algorithm. Bots generated 7,754,367 posts yesterday, up 1,224%. <a href="https://t.co/xhnlhE1V8D" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pic.twitter.com/xhnlhE1V8D</a>— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) <a href="https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/2010133579268067351?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">January 10, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
 "This is why 'crypto' posts are getting banned by the X algorithm," Ju wrote, citing a reported 7,754,367 bot-generated posts in a single day, a 1,224% increase.&nbsp;
</blockquote>
"It is absurd that X would rather ban crypto than improve its bot detection," he added, noting that X's verified paywall had failed to stop bots from paying to spam the platform regardless.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 As AI advances, bots are inevitable. Kaito shares some blame, but X’s failure to distinguish bots from humans is the real problem. The verified paywall failed, and bots now pay to spam. It is absurd that X would rather ban crypto than improve its bot detection.— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) <a href="https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/2010138977060388976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">January 10, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
The tension escalated further on April 30, when Bier revealed that crypto had become the most-muted topic on the platform, ranking ahead of politics, the Iran conflict, sports, and business and finance combined, a striking reversal for a platform once considered the heartbeat of Crypto Twitter.&nbsp;
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That admission followed the April 22 launch of a "snooze" feature for Premium subscribers, which let users hide entire topics from their feed for 24 hours. Bier had described the tool at the time as a way to "crank up or turn down the slop," a nod to the low-quality content increasingly cluttering the platform.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 The most snoozed (i.e., muted) topics since launching the snooze feature: 1. Crypto 2. Politics 3. Iran Conflict 4. Sports 5. Business &amp; Finance 6. Gaming 7. Artificial Intelligence 8. Videos 9. Science &amp; Technology 10. Entertainment &amp; Arts <a href="https://t.co/ycp7OBHp8B" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://t.co/ycp7OBHp8B</a>— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) <a href="https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2049704418669723729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">April 30, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="the-response-to-july-s-fix">The response to July's fix</h2>
Against that backdrop, the July 13 announcement landed as vindication for many in the community.
<blockquote>
 "Wow with this new algo change, I'm seeing crypto accounts that I haven't seen in years. I actually can't believe how they basically shadow banned all of crypto twitter," one <a href="https://x.com/LayahHeilpern/status/2077059206692139059" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">user wrote</a>. Another simply <a href="https://x.com/moonpay/status/2077098165874913514" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">posted</a>, "crypto twitter is back. it's time."
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 crypto twitter is back. it's time.— Dip Wheeler (@DipWheeler) <a href="https://x.com/DipWheeler/status/2077111208608661559?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">July 14, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 Bitcoin Twitter is back... Let me know if you're still here! 🧡— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) <a href="https://x.com/BitcoinArchive/status/2077056828542771225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">July 14, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 entire timeline is crypto twitter again hello friends we’re so back— CRG (@MacroCRG) <a href="https://x.com/MacroCRG/status/2077087056099254715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">July 14, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
Even Coinbase, one of the largest and most regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, joined in, <a href="https://x.com/coinbase/status/2077073798281494593" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">posting</a>:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 "Like this post to put crypto twitter back on your feed."
</blockquote>
Bier joined X as head of product in June 2025, shortly after taking on an advisory role at the Solana Foundation in March of that year, where he focused on helping consumer-facing apps built on Solana scale toward mainstream mobile audiences, a background that may explain why the crypto community's frustration with X's algorithm felt particularly personal to him.
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Musk's X tweaks its algorithm to bring Crypto Twitter back

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