Nikita Bier is stepping back as X's product chief after 400 days on the job, the company confirmed this week. He'll stay on as an advisor. Bier, who previously built teen apps tbh and Gas — both acquired by Facebook and Discord and both hit No. 1 on the US App Store — shipped nearly 30 products during his tenure. That includes a live market data pilot that drove an estimated $1 billion in Cash App trading volume within 48 hours. He's handing a roadmap focused on payments and trading to three engineers.
A 400-day product blitz
Bier took the role in July 2025 and quickly set about rebuilding X's core features. He overhauled the Timeline, the Android app, onboarding, notifications, and chat. He also shipped Grok-powered custom timelines, a topic snooze tool, and country of origin labels on profiles. Under his watch, XChat debuted on the App Store and beat ChatGPT and Claude in downloads. Bier claimed X climbed 70 places in the App Store in a year, but no third-party verification exists. X currently ranks No. 6 among free iPhone apps and near No. 34 on all-categories charts.
The numbers behind the story
SpaceX's May IPO filing reported X had 550 million monthly users in March, while X publicly claimed 600 million. The same filing showed 2025 ad revenue of $1.8 billion, down from $4.4 billion in 2022. Appfigures counted 104 million X downloads in 2025, down 13% from the previous year. The gap between the SpaceX filing and X's public claim has not been explained. On December 5, the European Commission fined X €120 million for non-compliance under the Digital Services Act. Bier terminated the European Commission's ad account the day after the fine.
Crypto tensions and regulatory heat
Crypto traders accused Bier of throttling crypto posts. Bier, who joined Solana as an advisor in March 2025, rejected the claims. Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation into xAI on January 14 over nonconsensual sexual imagery, with a cease-and-desist letter two days later. The EU fine added to the regulatory pressure. Bier's departure comes as X faces scrutiny on multiple fronts.
Bier is handing a roadmap focused on payments and trading to three engineers. He'll remain as an advisor. No timeline has been given for when those features will ship. The three engineers now own the product direction, and X's push into financial services appears to be the priority.
