X social network has sued two Bitcoin influencers and other people it says were involved in a network of accounts that manipulated engagement on the platform to earn creator payouts.

The lawsuit, filed in the High Court of England and Wales on September 17, names Vivek Kumar Sen, Zamyang Sherpa and “persons unknown.” X claims the group received at least £207,384, or about $278,000, through its former Creator Revenue Sharing program.

Importantly, these are allegations made by X. The claims have not been proven in court, and there was no public judgment or defense filing as of September 21.

According to the lawsuit, six main accounts were part of the alleged network. They included @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest and @PolyBackTest.

X says the accounts were not operating independently. Instead, the company alleges they worked together to make their posts appear more popular than they really were. The alleged method was simple: the accounts posted the same or very similar Bitcoin-related content, then liked, reposted and replied to each other's posts.

X says this created more engagement and helped the accounts earn more money from Creator Revenue Sharing.

The lawsuit gives several examples. In one case, X says two accounts posted almost identical content just 11 seconds apart. In another, three accounts allegedly replied to the same post within 31 seconds.

X also identified three other accounts, @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin and @Laserlump, that it says helped boost posts from the main group. The company claims it found connections between the accounts through information such as devices, software, cookies and payment details.

X also alleges that some payment information did not match the names used by the account operators. For example, the company says a Stripe account connected to @Bitcoin_Teddy was registered under the name “Stefan Mann,” while the linked bank account and email allegedly led back to Kumar Sen.

X says the six main accounts received at least £207,384 from the old creator program.

The largest alleged payment went to @Vivek4real_, which X says received £74,332.44. @Bitcoin_Teddy allegedly received about £50,000, while @saylordocs received £49,441.91.

X suspended the accounts on August 18. The company said the suspensions were related to alleged coordinated revenue-sharing fraud and manipulation of the platform.

Now, X wants the money back.

The company is asking for repayment of the alleged payouts, as well as damages, interest and legal costs. It also estimates that investigating and dealing with the alleged activity will cost at least another £75,000 ($100,000).

James Burnham, X's general counsel, confirmed the lawsuit.

“We do not tolerate fraudulent behavior on X—and will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators,” he said.

The lawsuit comes as X moves away from the payment system at the center of the case.
Creator Revenue Sharing was introduced in 2023 and allowed eligible creators to earn money based partly on engagement with their posts.

The program was eventually shut down in September. X has replaced it with Original Content Rewards, which focuses more heavily on original content and qualifying impressions.

The new system specifically excludes artificially generated engagement. X also says creators cannot use bots or other automated methods to manufacture likes, views, follows, comments or shares.

For Bitcoin content creators, the change is important because engagement has long been a major part of building an audience on X. Large numbers of views, likes and replies can help an account attract followers, sponsorships and other business opportunities.