X Launches Smart Cashtags to Clarify Crypto Assets Amid Algorithm Transparency Demands

Source: Cryptonews Original Title: X Smart Cashtags target crypto spam and asset confusion Original Link:

Feature Overview

Social media platform X announced plans to introduce “Smart Cashtags,” a feature designed to clarify financial and cryptocurrency-related discussions. The feature will allow users to specify exact assets or smart contracts tied to ticker symbols by selecting precise tokens or contract addresses from a prompt, ensuring conversations link directly to correct assets.

Users will be able to tap tags to view real-time price charts and browse related mentions across the platform. The company is collecting feedback and targeting a potential public release next month.

Solana Labs demonstrated how Smart Cashtags could function for blockchain ecosystems, showing a drop-down menu of assets including Bitcoin (BTC), BONK, Base, and Solana (SOL)-based tokens, each linked to pages containing prices, charts, and related commentary.

Regulatory Context

The announcement comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny from the European Union. The European Commission extended a retention order related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content through the end of 2026. Paris prosecutors investigated the platform in July 2025 for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction.

The EU fined X 120 million euros last month, citing breaches of transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act related to subscription verification, ad repository transparency, and failure to provide researchers access to public data.

Algorithm Transparency Commitment

Platform owner Elon Musk announced that X will open its new algorithm to the public, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, within seven days. “This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” Musk stated.

Crypto Community Concerns

Ki Young Ju, founder of onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, accused X of suppressing genuine crypto posts while failing to control bot-generated spam. He argued that X’s algorithms are struggling to distinguish between real users and bots, and that the platform’s paid verification program is failing as a filtering tool, allowing bots to “pay to spam” while legitimate accounts lose reach.

The controversy began with a now-deleted post by Nikita Bier, the company’s head of product, suggesting X might limit how frequently high-activity accounts can reply or engage. Bier argued that many crypto accounts dilute their own visibility through excessive posting of low-value messages such as “gm” replies and meme spam.

Pseudonymous analyst KALEO publicly criticized the idea, arguing such restraints would discourage creators from interacting with audiences.

Broader Context

X continues to serve as a primary real-time communication hub for cryptocurrency traders, project teams, analysts, influencers, researchers, and journalists. Last year the platform launched XChats, a messaging system incorporating encrypted communications and file sharing. The company has been building toward broader financial capabilities through its push for a full payments license and integration of in-app wallets.

Smart Cashtags represent the latest product update aimed at keeping finance and cryptocurrency at the center of X’s ecosystem, with potential to improve how traders and researchers navigate conversations through clearer tagging, fewer misidentified assets, and easier access to price data.