The "account banning wave" in the cryptocurrency circle continues to expand: Pump.fun and its co-founder account have been banned by X

Author: Bit推

In the early morning of June 17, Beijing time, the X (formerly Twitter) platform once again experienced a large-scale account banning incident, and the official accounts of the popular Meme token platform Pump.fun and its co-founder Alon were also not spared. This follows the large-scale account bans on June 12. Dozens of accounts belonging to KOLs and project teams in the crypto field, including the core accounts of the GMGN ecosystem and the Bloom Trading team, were banned simultaneously, marking a "ban storm" sweeping through the crypto industry on X.

According to community tracking, in addition to Pump.fun, a large number of accounts related to GMGN and other independent KOLs and project accounts were banned.

These include:

GMGN related accounts:

• @gmgnai
• @haze0x (Founder)
• @arthur_gmgn (Co-founder)
• @Ga__ke (Associated account)
• @brc20niubi (Associated account)
• @Wolfy_XBT (Associated account)
• @0xcryptowizard (Associated account)
• @ivyflame (Team member)
• @gmgnaiJapanese

Bloom related accounts:

• @BloomTrading
• @imBFFF00 (Team member)
• @nftraian (Team member)
• @CookerFlips (Partner)
• @vibed333 (Associated account)

Other banned accounts:

• @bullx_io
• @ElizaOS (Team)
• @shawmakesmagic
• @uxento
• @Nuotrix_

Community Comments and In-depth Analysis of Reasons

Although the X platform has not provided a clear official explanation, various speculations and analyses are circulating within the community, attempting to explain the reasons behind this large-scale account ban:

1. Serious violations of API usage regulations, with X platform cracking down on "black market" data acquisition: Analysts have pointed out that some crypto applications like Pump.fun, GMGN, Bloom, and Uxento used Twitter trackers and snipers (tools that can quickly track tweets or wallets). However, these tools did not obtain data directly from the X platform through legal means, but allegedly used "black market" or shared APIs—methods of accessing X platform data that are unofficial or unauthorized.

The X platform has begun to crack down on such behavior. There have been precedents, as another tool, WuupX, received a cease and desist letter for violating Twitter's terms of service. Now, other accounts using similar setups are also starting to be banned. This unauthorized data acquisition method is seen as encroaching on X's "cake," as X's official API fees for businesses can reach up to $42,000 per month. Unauthorized use for data scraping is likely to violate the platform's terms of service and be regarded as abnormal access behavior or abuse of system resources.

2. Platform manipulation and spam behavior: Users like @sakakimay1995 have analyzed that some banned accounts, particularly ElizaOS and GMGN, may have automated posting frameworks (agents automatically posting on X) or generated large amounts of homogeneous content to guide users to purchase Meme coins. This kind of bulk-generated, structurally similar content that lacks sufficient user interaction can easily be deemed as spam or platform manipulation by the platform.

3. "Excessive liquidity extraction" accusations and potential fraud mechanisms: Crypto KOL Mary (@MaryWynnReal) pointed out that the banning of Pump.fun's founder by X may be related to an anomaly called "Liquidity Harvesting 2.0." Mary stated that this is an accused mechanism through which funds in user wallets mysteriously disappear and reappear in suspicious wallets.

She also mentioned that this occurred hours after internal reviews on the platform hinted that it might have "accidentally innovated excessively in financial concepts." Additionally, Pump.fun's homepage has been jokingly referred to by users as the "Slot Machine of DeFi," a name that reportedly caught the attention of "regulatory interns who are quite idle and have only a superficial understanding of crypto memes."

4. Rumors of an "AutoRug" feature: Mary's comments further revealed that insiders claimed Pump.fun's founder had been developing a new feature called AutoRug, aimed at saving time for developers and "exit liquidity participants" (i.e., high-position buyers). A Telegram administrator described it as: "It's really efficient. You post a token, it rugs itself, and then you get a push notification. It's like Uber Eats, but what you get is financial despair."

5. Potential multi-jurisdictional violations: In addition to "minor violations" of X rules, this account ban may also be related to alleged violations in four jurisdictions, suggesting that the incident may involve broader legal or regulatory aspects.

6. Crackdown on Meme coin promotion accounts: Another viewpoint suggests that this wave of bans may be a concentrated crackdown by the X platform on accounts that frequently post various Meme token contract addresses (CAs). Given the high-risk nature of the Meme coin market and potential market manipulation concerns (e.g., Pump.fun's projected revenue of $1 billion in 2024 but only 0.4% of wallets profiting, along with 80% of Meme coins crashing), X may be strengthening its regulation of the promotion of such high-risk financial products.

7. Relatively "far-fetched" speculations: There are also some more "outlandish" speculations, such as those involving the posting of memes related to Trump or Musk, but these are generally not considered the main reasons.

Community Response and Current Status of Pump.fun

The sudden and large-scale nature of this incident has raised doubts among many KOLs and project teams regarding X's content moderation mechanisms. Banned accounts are gradually appealing, and as of the time of this article's publication, the Pump.fun official website and operations through other channels remain active. Discussions within the community regarding this large-scale account ban are still ongoing, and more details and X's official response are yet to be observed.