X Communities alternatives for crypto groups (2026)

This list is for admins of crypto, memecoin and CTO groups that lived in X Communities. X announced in April 2026 that it would close Communities and pointed admins to XChat group chats; in October 2026 a public Community page still opened, so check your own Community before you set a moving date. Below are seven X Communities alternatives, compared on six points. One of them is Cherry (cherry.fun), a wallet-to-wallet messenger and community app for crypto where you sign in with a wallet, DM any wallet address, and join or create token-gated, NFT-gated and paid group chats.

What X announced, and what still loads

X’s plan, as TechCrunch reported it on 23 April 2026: X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said Communities “were used by less than 0.4% of users” and “contributed to 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on X.” The shutdown was set for 6 May 2026, and the deadline for admins to move their members was later extended to 30 May 2026. X pointed those admins to XChat, where a group chat gets a public joinable link that can be shared on the timeline and pinned.

No major outlet has reported what happened after 30 May. In October 2026, for a visitor who was not logged in, X’s Communities hub went to the sign-in page, while a direct link to a large public Community still opened with its member count, a Join button and recent posts. Treat the shutdown as announced, and look at your own Community before you tell members it is gone.

How we picked an X Communities alternative

Each option is a place a crypto group can run day to day, judged on six points:

1. Member cap, as the operator states it.
2. Holder check: whether the place itself can require a token, an NFT or a payment before someone posts.
3. Public page: whether outsiders can find the group, as they could find a Community.
4. Moderation tools.
5. Trading in chat.
6. What you need to sign up.

Where an operator publishes nothing on a point, the table says “not stated”.

XChat group chats

XChat is X’s messaging product: chats inside the X app and, since 24 April 2026, a standalone iOS app (Engadget, 24 April 2026). X’s Chat help page describes end-to-end encrypted messages whose keys a PIN recovers on a new device, and says only existing X accounts can sign in to the Chat app. The size of a group depends on whom you read. TechCrunch’s updated article of 23 April 2026 says joinable group links support up to 500 members, with a goal of 1,000. Engadget reported 350 on 23 April and again on 24 April. X’s developer documentation for XChat groups, read in October 2026, gives no number, only an error for a group that would exceed “the allowed group size”.

Fit: the closest move for a group that lives on X. Members stay inside the app they already open, and the link can sit pinned on your profile. X states no way to check what a member holds, so a holder group stays open to anyone with the link.

pump.fun Coin Communities

Startup Fortune reported on 31 May 2026 that pump.fun had launched Coin Communities as X wound down its own: each token gets a social space on pump.fun where “holders and followers can post, reply, like messages and follow other users”, tied to the token’s on-chain address. Who may post, and whether a minimum holding applies, is set by pump.fun; check a coin’s community page before you send members there. In October 2026 its community pages showed us a “Region restricted” notice, so check that they open where your members live.

Fit: a pump.fun coin gets its community with no setup, beside the coin itself. You do not own the room, and members in a restricted region cannot reach it.

Telegram with bots

Telegram’s FAQ (October 2026) says groups hold up to 200,000 members and channels have no subscriber limit, that private messaging “is free and will stay free”, and that “Telegram accounts can only be connected to a mobile number.” Holder checks come from third-party bots that run on wallet-connect sites, Collab.Land among them.

Fit: a 200,000-member cap and the habits most crypto users already have. The costs are familiar: scam DMs that reach members before your announcement does, fake screenshots, and a holder check that lives in a bot.

Discord with Collab.Land

Collab.Land’s site (October 2026) says it ensures “every new member holds the necessary token(s) to join” and re-checks holdings on a recurring basis. It works on Discord and Telegram. Its pricing counts verified members only: Starter is free up to 25, Basic $17.99 a month up to 100, Premium $35 up to 1,000, Exclusive $149 up to 2,500 and Elite $449 up to 7,500.

Fit: an NFT or token community that already runs a Discord with roles and channels. Members connect a wallet on an outside site to receive a role.

dm.fun

dm.fun, from Matrica Labs, opens a chat room for every Solana token’s contract address, so a coin has a room the moment it exists. Its home page in October 2026 reads “Chat, meme, and trade. All in one.” Accounts use embedded wallets from Privy (dm.fun, January 2026), dm.fun added a SOL-balance requirement to join chats in March 2026, and its moderation tools include kick, ban, slow mode and chat lock (December 2025). Its group pages showed visitors a “download the app” screen in September 2026. More in our dm.fun alternatives .

Fit: one memecoin whose holders want a room tied to the contract address, with swaps beside the chat.

Phantom token chats

Phantom’s help center article “Join live chats in Phantom” (October 2026) puts a live chat on each token, perp and prediction-market page in the Phantom mobile app, with no chats in the browser extension. To post you need “a Phantom username, at least $1 in your wallet, and your profile set to Public or Private.” You can buy or sell from the chat. Phantom’s rules ban external links, staff impersonation and giveaways that ask members to send funds or connect a wallet. The article also says: “Live chats are not a support channel.”

Fit: traders who already hold the token in Phantom and want to talk next to the trade button. The chat belongs to the market and Phantom moderates it; its help article names no way for a token team to set its own rules or admins. See Cherry vs Phantom chat .

Cherry

A Cherry group is a room an owner creates and moderates, with an @handle and roles for owner, admin, moderator and member. A room can carry up to 5 rules, combined so that a member meets every rule or any one of them: a token balance, an NFT from a collection, a domain such as .sol or .skr, the wallet app used to sign in, or a payment. Cherry checks the chain itself at join and re-checks members in the background. A holder who sells is paywalled: the room stays in their chat list, the messages are withheld, and the screen says “You no longer meet this group’s requirements” with a “Re-check” button. A later passing check, or Re-check after buying back, restores access with no re-join. Details are on our token-gated chat page.

To replace the public Community page, every public group has a storefront at chat.cherry.fun/@handle with its rules, member count and reviews, and search engines can index it (community storefront ). A public room with no gate can also be shared as a preview link that lets a logged-out visitor read the chat and asks for sign-in only when they post. Channels carry announcements where only owners and admins post, and airdrop campaigns pay SOL or a token to eligible wallets, such as the token’s holders. A $TICKER or a pasted contract address becomes a token card with a swap on the web app; perps and tokenized stocks are available via the Trading Terminal mini app, and prediction markets via the Polymarket mini app.

The Trenches is an open Solana trading room with no gate. It had 7,539 members and 17,584 messages in October 2026. Seeker Club, which asks members to hold a .skr domain, had 8,717 members and 59,626 messages the same month.

Signing in with a wallet needs no phone number, email or KYC. The Cherry web app also offers Google, Apple and X sign-in. Two limits: group chats are not end-to-end encrypted (DMs are), so moderation and bots can work, and a Cherry room is not inside X, so reach comes from the links you post.

Fit: a holder group that wants rules read from the chain, an owner who runs the room, and a public page people can find.

Side by side

Reach and rules, as each operator stated them (dates in the sections above):

Money and sign-up:

Moving a group: a short checklist

1. Check your Community today and screenshot its rules and pinned posts while it loads.
2. Decide who may talk: anyone with a link, or only wallets that hold the token.
3. Create the new room and claim its handle, then write the rules into its description.
4. Put announcements in a broadcast channel and keep talk in the group.
5. Pin the new link in the Community, in your X bio and on the project site.

The step-by-step versions are in moving a community off Telegram and, for a group that changed hands, running a community takeover . The CTO community entry explains what changes hands in a takeover and what stays fixed. Our post on where memecoin holders talk maps the wider picture.

Which one to pick

Pick XChat if reach on X matters most and anyone may talk. Pick a wallet-checked room if only holders should post, and check what it does when a holder sells. Run both if you lead a CTO: an X feed for announcements, and a holder room your crew creates and gates by the mint. Telegram and Discord suit groups that already run there and will not move. Phantom’s chats and pump.fun’s communities give a coin a conversation with no setup, but someone else runs it.

If the holder room is the part you need, create a group at chat.cherry.fun and gate it by your token’s mint.

FAQ

Is X shutting down Communities?

X announced it would. TechCrunch reported on 23 April 2026 that X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said Communities would close, with the shutdown set for 6 May 2026 and the migration deadline later extended to 30 May 2026. In October 2026 a public Community page still opened for a visitor who was not logged in, so check your own Community before you plan around a closure.

When do X Communities shut down?

X first set 6 May 2026 and then extended the deadline for admins to move their members to 30 May 2026, as TechCrunch reported on 23 April 2026. No major outlet has reported what happened after 30 May, and in October 2026 a public Community page still loaded with its member count and a Join button.

What replaces X Communities?

X pointed admins to XChat group chats with joinable links that can be shared and pinned on the timeline. Crypto groups also use Telegram with bots, Discord with Collab.Land, pump.fun’s per-token Coin Communities, dm.fun, Phantom’s token chats, or a wallet-checked room on Cherry where the app reads the rules from the chain.

How many members can an XChat group have?

TechCrunch reported on 23 April 2026, in an updated article, that XChat group links support up to 500 members with a goal of 1,000. Engadget reported 350 on 23 and 24 April 2026. X’s developer documentation for XChat groups gave no number in October 2026.

Where should a memecoin community go after X Communities?

Use an XChat group if reach on X matters most and anyone may talk. Use a wallet-checked room, such as a token-gated group on Cherry, if only holders should post. A community takeover can run both: a public feed on X for announcements and a holder room for the people who hold the token.

Sources

• TechCrunch, “X is shutting down Communities because of low usage and lots of spam”, 23 April 2026
• Engadget, “X is shutting down its Communities feature”, 23 April 2026
• Engadget, “XChat, the standalone app for messaging on X, is available on iOS now”, 24 April 2026
• Startup Fortune, “Pump.fun brings coin communities onto its own platform”, 31 May 2026
• Phantom help center, “Join live chats in Phantom”
• Telegram FAQ
• Collab.Land and Collab.Land pricing
• dm.fun
• The Trenches on Cherry