X seeks more than £207,000
The offensive comes as Elon Musk gradually transforms his social network into financial infrastructure. BrefCrypto had already detailed this shift with the rollout of X Money and the crypto ambitions surrounding the service.
The proceedings were filed on September 17 before the High Court of Justice in England and Wales. The claimants, X Internet Unlimited Company and X Corp., are targeting Vivek Kumar Sen, Zamyang Sherpa and several unidentified people who allegedly controlled different accounts. The court document is available directly through X’s transparency portal. View X’s filed complaint
According to X, the network allegedly used several accounts as a single coordinated operation. The presumed goal was to manufacture engagement, increase the share of revenue paid by the platform and distribute payments across several financial accounts to make the scheme harder to detect. X puts the disputed payments at a minimum of £207,384, in addition to at least £75,000 in costs related to the investigation and measures taken after the network was discovered.
Posts published just 11 seconds apart
The complaint does not rely solely on audience statistics. X says it identified identical or nearly identical content posted by several accounts just seconds or minutes apart.
On August 5, for example, the accounts @Vivek4real_ and @TrendingBitcoin allegedly posted substantially similar content just 11 seconds apart. On other dates in July and August, @TrendingBitcoin, @Vivek4real_ and @Bitcoin_Teddy allegedly posted the same content minutes apart. The accounts also allegedly liked, reposted and commented on one another’s posts to create the appearance of organic interactions.
This type of manipulation extends well beyond Bitcoin. Social platforms have become an important part of the crypto economy, both for spreading information and for fraud. BrefCrypto had already observed this intersection during the operation conducted with Coinbase, Meta and SpaceX against crypto scam networks.
James Burnham, X and xAI’s chief legal officer, says the company will act against networks that divert revenue intended for legitimate creators.
X changes its monetization rules
The case comes above all in the wake of a much broader change. X ended its former Creator Revenue Sharing Program and replaced it with Original Content Rewards, a system more focused on content considered original.
In August, Nikita Bier, then X’s head of product, had already referred to the case of a user who allegedly controlled more than ten profiles and collected more than $250,000 in revenue over two years. The case was reportedly referred to the authorities. The crypto-account suspensions carried out around that time now take on a different significance.
For the crypto ecosystem, the case also highlights how easily an artificial audience can become a source of revenue. From viral fake documents and recycled content to coordinated networks, manipulation spread on social media had already prompted Binance to publicly respond to false information.
The proceedings against Sen, Sherpa and the other alleged operators must now run their course. The £207,384 is documented as payments disputed by X, not as fraud already established by the courts. That distinction matters. X is nevertheless seeking to draw a clear line: manipulating engagement to divert monetization is no longer merely a violation of the platform’s rules. The company now wants to pursue it in court.
