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X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, took nine Bitcoin-focused accounts to court in England, accusing them of gaming its creator payout system to pocket £207,384 — roughly $278,000 — through coordinated fake engagement.
The lawsuit landed in the High Court of England and Wales, naming Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa as defendants, along with a set of unnamed operators. Per the filing, which X made available through its Transparency Center, the two men allegedly ran a web of accounts that cross-posted nearly identical content, liked each other’s posts, and reprogrammed their behavior to look like real human activity. X’s lawyers called it a “false appearance of genuine, human communication and interaction.” All the involved accounts were suspended on August 18.
The six accounts at the center of the fraud claim — @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, and @PolyBackTest — were enrolled in X’s revenue-sharing program. The filing links the Stripe payout accounts for the first three profiles directly to Sen. The remaining three connect to Sherpa.
The Alleged Engagement Network
It didn’t stop there. X’s filing drags in three more accounts — @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin, and @Laserlump — described as support players. These accounts weren’t named as defendants, but X says they were busy liking and reposting content from the primary accounts to make engagement numbers look bigger than they were. One example the filing cites: on August 5, @Vivek4real_ and @TrendingBitcoin posted near-identical content within seconds of each other. Not minutes. Seconds.
The revenue-sharing program the accounts allegedly exploited ran between August 2023 and February 2026, paying eligible creators a slice of X’s ad revenue based on how much engagement their posts pulled in. The scheme, if X’s version holds up in court, basically turned that system into a slot machine the defendants had wired in their favor.
X says it’s also on the hook for at least £75,000 — around $100,000 — in investigation costs. That pushes total potential losses to at least £282,384 before interest or legal fees pile on.
Attempts to reach Sen for comment, as the filing itself mentions, went nowhere. Sherpa was equally unreachable.
X Scraps Its Old Payout Model
The timing is hard to ignore. X retired its old revenue-sharing program on September 7 and rolled out a replacement called Original Content Rewards shortly after. The company says the new program is built to tie creator earnings more tightly to authentic engagement — basically closing the door the defendants allegedly walked through.
It’s a pretty significant pivot. Revenue-sharing programs across social media have always been vulnerable to gaming. Coordinated like-and-repost rings aren’t new, and platforms have fought them for years. But the scale here — nine accounts, two named individuals, a payout scheme stretching across more than two years — is notable. And the fact that X went straight to the High Court of England and Wales rather than just banning the accounts and moving on says something about how seriously the company is treating the alleged losses.
The filing itself is detailed. It doesn’t just allege fraud in broad strokes. It names specific accounts, ties those accounts to specific Stripe payment profiles, names specific individuals behind those profiles, and gives a concrete example — the August 5 simultaneous posting — to show the coordination wasn’t accidental. That kind of granularity usually means X’s legal team thinks the paper trail is solid.
Whether the defendants respond at all is unclear. Sen and Sherpa both failed to engage with X’s pre-litigation contact attempts, per the filing. That could complicate the proceedings or, depending on how English courts handle it, potentially speed things up if the defendants don’t mount a defense.
The broader question is what happens to the Original Content Rewards program going forward. X is betting the new structure is harder to game. But creator monetization on any platform is a cat-and-mouse situation — someone always tries to find the edge. The accounts named in the lawsuit were apparently doing it for at least two years before X caught up with them.
And the Bitcoin angle here isn’t really about Bitcoin itself. These were accounts with Bitcoin-themed branding — @Bitcoin_Teddy, @TrendingBitcoin, @BTC_Vibes — but the alleged fraud was about payout manipulation, not crypto transactions. The money moved through Stripe, not a blockchain. The Bitcoin theme was probably just a niche that drew engagement on its own, which made the fake-engagement scheme easier to hide inside a real audience.
X is seeking recovery of the £207,384 plus the £75,000 in investigation costs, with interest and legal expenses still to be calculated.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which accounts did X name in its High Court lawsuit?
X named six primary accounts — @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, and @PolyBackTest — plus three supporting accounts: @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin, and @Laserlump. The two named individuals are Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa.
How much is X trying to recover in the lawsuit?
X is seeking £207,384 ($278,000) in allegedly fraudulent payouts, plus at least £75,000 ($100,000) in investigation costs, with interest and legal fees still to be determined.
Why It Matters
This legal action underscores the growing scrutiny of platforms like X as they grapple with the integrity of their monetization systems, particularly in the context of cryptocurrency and digital engagement. As more companies integrate blockchain technology and digital assets into their operations, the potential for manipulation and fraudulent behavior may raise concerns among investors and regulators alike, potentially impacting market confidence in both social media and cryptocurrency ecosystems. Additionally, this case may set a precedent for how similar disputes are handled in the evolving landscape of digital finance and social media interactions.
