Elon Musk’s X Sues Bitcoin Account Network It Says Farmed £207,000 Via Fake Engagement

X has sued two of its own users in London, claiming they ran a cluster of Bitcoin accounts as one operation in order to manufacture engagement and collect payouts from the platform’s now-defunct Creator Revenue Sharing program.

The particulars of claim , filed September 17 in the High Court of Justice, name Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa as defendants, along with “persons unknown” alleged to have controlled additional handles. X said the scheme produced “not less than £207,384” (about $278,000) in program payments and that it spent, or expects to spend, at least £75,000 investigating and shutting it down.

X and xAI General Counsel James Burnham put the company’s position in public on Sunday.

Last week, @X sued several people who abused Creator Revenue Sharing by operating a coordinated network of accounts, posting inauthentic content to manipulate engagement, and using multiple bank accounts to hide their scheme.

“Last week, @X sued several people who abused Creator Revenue Sharing by operating a coordinated network of accounts, posting inauthentic content to manipulate engagement, and using multiple bank accounts to hide their scheme,” Burnham wrote . “We do not tolerate fraudulent behavior on X — and will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.”

The allegations have not been tested in court, and neither Sen nor Sherpa has filed a public defense as of Monday.

Six handles were enrolled in Creator Revenue Sharing between August 2023 and February of this year, according to X’s court filing: @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, and @PolyBackTest. The company also lists @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin, and @Laserlump as supporting accounts that liked, replied to, and reposted the main group’s posts. The complaint describes the whole set as one network whose purpose was to keep payouts flowing even if a single account got restricted.

The content on these accounts would be familiar to anyone who has come across the notoriously annoying news aggregators on X, especially those that focus on crypto. All-caps “BREAKING” posts about what Michael Saylor just said about bitcoin, or what SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said about the potential passage of the CLARITY Act ( which failed a crucial vote in the Senate last week ) were par for the course. One cluster of screenshots shows multiple accounts posting the same red bitcoin price chart with the line “LIKE, IF YOU ARE NOT SELLING.”

X says those accounts posted identical or near-identical copy within minutes of each other, and in one case 11 seconds. The company also says the accounts liked, reposted, and replied to one another to create “a false appearance of genuine, human communication.” The supporting handles left short replies such as “Massive,” “Bullish” and “That’s massive,” then amplified the larger accounts.

X further claims Sen used @Vivek4real_ to shop for more reach. In a December message quoted in the claim, he asked a third party about buying that person’s account, and suggested moving the conversation off X.