The phrase “bitcoin” or every other point out of crypto will get you banned from the OpenClaw Discord. Not for spam, not for shilling, however only for saying it.
Peter Steinberger, the Austrian developer behind OpenClaw, the open-source AI agent framework that has surged previous 200,000 GitHub stars since its launch in late January, has enforced a blanket no-crypto rule on the venture’s neighborhood server.
A consumer who just lately talked about bitcoin in passing — within the context of utilizing block peak as a clock for a multi-agent benchmark, not selling a token — was blocked instantly.
Acquired blocked from @openclaw Discord for saying ‘bitcoin’ 🦞
CLASHD27 is multi-agent benchmark the place Bitcoin block peak is only a clock (mod 27). No tokens.
Speculation: can we pre-weigh intent? If consideration is measured we carry belief to OpenClaw brokers.@steipete Unblock 🙏
— clashd27 (@blockapunk) February 21, 2026
Steinberger was clear in regards to the ban in a follow-up reply to the X publish.
We’ve got strict server guidelines that you just accepted whe you entered the server. No crypto point out by any means is one in every of them, he mentioned.
The rule comes after what occurred in late January, when crypto practically destroyed the venture from the within.
The difficulty began after AI powerhouse Anthropic despatched Steinberger a trademark discover over the venture’s authentic identify, Clawdbot, which the AI firm argued was too near Anthropic’s personal “Claude.” Steinberger agreed to rebrand.
However within the temporary seconds between releasing his outdated GitHub and X handles and securing the brand new ones, scammers seized each accounts and started selling a faux token known as $CLAWD on Solana.
That token hit $16 million in market capitalization inside hours. When Steinberger publicly denied any involvement, it crashed over 90%, wiping out late patrons. Early snipers walked away with earnings, and Steinberger was left fielding harassment from merchants who blamed him for not endorsing the token.
“To all crypto people: please cease pinging me, cease harassing me,” he wrote on X on the time. “I’ll by no means do a coin. Any venture that lists me as coin proprietor is a SCAM.”
“You might be actively damaging the venture.”
To all crypto people:
Please cease pinging me, cease harassing me.
I’ll by no means do a coin.
Any venture that lists me as coin proprietor is a SCAM.
No, I cannot settle for charges.
You might be actively damanging the venture.— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) January 27, 2026
Safety researchers at blockchain agency SlowMist and impartial auditors discovered a whole bunch of OpenClaw situations uncovered to the general public web with no authentication, partly as a result of the device’s localhost belief mannequin breaks when run behind a reverse proxy.
Individually, a researcher discovered 386 malicious “expertise” — add-on scripts for OpenClaw brokers — revealed on the venture’s talent repository, many focusing on crypto merchants particularly.
Steinberger has since joined OpenAI to guide its private brokers division, with OpenClaw transferring to an impartial open-source basis. The venture is flourishing.
However the crypto ban on Discord stays, leaving a scar from a weeks-long episode that confirmed how briskly speculative token tradition can engulf a reliable software program venture and practically bury it.
