Original article by Emily Lai, Hype CMO
Original translation: TechFlow
Crypto marketing is a bewildering process: from choosing the right channels, to messaging, to team coordination. Should you invest in an event? Do you need to start an ambassador program? How should the incentives for a hackathon be designed? There is always something to do.
A good marketer will streamline the process, create a plan, and execute tasks while helping you save money.
Figure: An effective marketing strategy can help you sort out a seemingly complex situation
However, crypto marketing at this stage is becoming increasingly challenging.
What exactly happened?
What can we do as founders, builders, and marketers?
Why? Here are three reasons: No new users!!!
Reason 1: Intensified competition
The entire crypto ecosystem is saturated with chains, infrastructure, and dApps (decentralized applications), with each project vying for attention with its own token.
Figure: Data source: On-chain data provided by @defillama, dApps and token data provided by @alvaapp
Figure: For example, my friend @mumufengg has never used an on-chain product (no hot wallet, no exposure to dApps), but his first experience reflects the confusion of new users
According to @DefiLlama, there are currently over 356 blockchains.
After a talk I spoke to @cattybk (from @thirdweb) and he told me they work with over 2000 EVM chains alone. So I looked up @coingecko’s data:
More than 8700 L1 chains
Over 5200 L2 chains
In addition, there are:
According to @cookiedotfun, 1500+ AI agents
According to @pumpdotfun and @Dune, over 50k tokens are added every day
44 narratives tracked by @KaitoAI
The question is, will there be an influx of new users to support these new chains, infrastructure, dApps, and tokens?
In terms of total locked value (TVL), the performance of this cycle is comparable to the previous one, and is consistent with the performance of the word “crypto” in Google search trends – the search volume periodically declines, indicating that mainstream users’ interest is waning.
Even when new users come in, they are faced with hundreds of chains to choose from, not to mention hundreds of wallets. It’s more confusing than ever.
Figure: Data source: TVL trend comparison shown by @defillama
Figure: Google Trends shows the global search trends for Crypto
Reason 2: Target audience is fragmented
The crypto space has a diverse audience, each with different motivations, further exacerbating market fragmentation.
Developers and builders:
If you are a blockchain/network/ecosystem developer, you need to attract developers to build applications that will attract new users.
This requires developer marketing and onboarding. Developers’ motivations may include: wanting to use your technology stack to implement a unique idea, getting development funding, or seeing a higher chance of success based on network effects and distribution capabilities.
Customers and Users:
If you are a protocol, dApp, middleware, or service provider, you need to attract users to generate revenue.
For the ecosystem, dApp teams may be considered customers.
It is important to note that users and token holders are not always the same, and sometimes token holders may just be speculators who do not actually use your product.
Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and Other Investors:
These groups provide you with funding and are motivated by a return on investment (ROI), usually achieved through a token whose performance is not always directly correlated to the technology, number of users, or number of developers.
Retail investors and token speculators:
These people may or may not be your users. Their goal is also high return on investment (ROI) and profit from token transactions.
Technology Partners:
These are usually other infrastructure or middleware projects. As blockchains scale in terms of speed, security, and cost, a whole field of middleware infrastructure has emerged, including chain/wallet abstraction, cross-chain bridges, interoperability, modularity, etc.
In addition, there are service providers, not just limited to agencies, but also blockchain browsers, advertising technology, unlocking software, etc.
These partners are often a broad audience to target, which is why business development (BD) is so popular in the industry.
Listing Partners:
Including exchanges, launch platforms, market makers, intermediaries and KOL transactions, etc. The performance of these groups directly affects the success of your token, and their motivations are usually related to ROI.
Regulators and Institutional Investors:
This audience can bring a lot of liquidity, but it can also cause your company to fail.
In addition to all of these audience types, the globalization of the crypto industry has further exacerbated market fragmentation. This means understanding cultural differences, coordinating messaging across different time zones, and managing localized marketing efforts.
All of this makes marketing in the crypto industry more difficult. In comparison, Web2 marketing is more direct, the messaging is clearer, and the motivations are more consistent.
For example:
Selling health products: Targeting health-conscious people, senior citizens and high-income groups.
Selling winter jackets: for people in cold climates, skiers, climbers, and snowboarders.
Selling protein powder: for fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders, excluding vegetarians (if it is whey protein).
Reason 3: Technology is not yet mature and user trust is damaged
According to statistics, the media has declared Bitcoin dead 415 times since its birth. In addition, the crypto industry is notorious for fraud, money laundering and crime.
Image: Some crypto headlines might make your mother worry about your career choice
In 2021, the boom of NFT and Metaverse attracted a large number of new users. At that time, many celebrities joined the game. If you were working in this industry at that time, you might have received many consultation messages from old friends.
However, all this came to an abrupt end after the following problems emerged: high gas fees, plummeting token prices, and painful experience of users losing money. These problems led to a reputation crisis and loss of trust.
Mainstream users left the market and we entered a construction (bear) cycle, which also ushered in thousands of new chains and middleware.
Figure: The industrys focus swings between we need more applications and we need more infrastructure. (Inspired by @jillrgunters visualization)
So, why are you still here?
I don’t know, please take a deep breath, calm down, and tell me your reasons (I really want to hear your story, which is also important for your marketing).
For me, I fell into the Bitcoin rabbit hole in my college apartment in 2013 because I loved its values of sovereignty and self-sufficiency.
Since then, I’ve also seen cryptocurrencies being used more widely in places like Argentina, Indonesia, and Türkiye.
For example, I’m surviving mostly on crypto stablecoins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to combat the crazy inflation there:
Additionally, there are many companies that are using blockchain technology and abstracting it completely.
Shout out to @benLLS from @octantapp for mentioning @jia_DeFi, a company helping unlock capital and opportunity in emerging markets, and Hala Systems, dedicated to reducing harm, increasing safety, and stabilizing communities.
There are also companies like @bombocommunity, which uses NFTs to ensure the security of music tickets while abstracting crypto languages. @cattybk also mentioned some blockchain-based casual games that are gaining users outside of crypto Twitter.
Additionally, @mariashen (from @electriccapital) publishes a developer report every year. Although the number of developers is down from the previous cycle, Web3 developers are still growing overall, which also suggests that we are not attracting net new users.
The reality is: even after 16 years, we are still in the early stages
Figure: Classic chart of early adopters from the book Crossing the Chasm
We have crossed the chasm where the risk-tolerant mainstream market has accepted Bitcoin and recognizes cryptocurrency as an asset class.
But we have yet to communicate to them why there are thousands of blockchains, let alone one app that they can use every day that surpasses Instagram, Temu, TikTok, WhatsApp, or ChatGPT (which are growing in popularity much faster than the crypto industry).
What does this mean? Are we not building something people need? Or… it’s not mature enough.
I believe there are many kindhearted people in this industry who want to make society better. I know some of them personally. @vijaymichalik, @arlery, @motherpredicte, @divine_economy, @alipaints, to name just a few.
If you are building crypto with good intentions, what are the marketing fundamentals you need to master and apply?
These are two slides I always show in my “What is Marketing” talks, and they basically condense marketing strategy into four words.
You can see me explain this in more detail in this video I did with @modenetwork: click to watch.
Also, there’s a version shared at the last India Blockchain Week (@ibwofficial) that looks at the context of founders/personal brands, using @megaeth_labs as an example: click to watch.
Three important tips for acquiring crypto users
There are seven audiences in the crypto space, spread across multiple geographic regions. In addition, your internal team members (business development, product, marketing, creative, legal, etc.) also need to collaborate.
In one of @moremarketsxyzs AMOS series, hosted by @xkonjin and joined by @reka_eth and I, we invited @jaambutties (CMO of @nillionnetwork) to share how he coordinates brand campaigns.
This alignment engages all stakeholders, amplifies your marketing efforts, and helps break through and capture the scarce and valuable attention in this space.
At the end of the day, because the technology is still in its early stages and the industry is extremely saturated, we really need to do some things that are not scalable. This includes onboarding new people one by one, personally participating, and educating them.
As much as I love showing @pumpdotfun to friends who have never been exposed to crypto, I also have to give @a 1 lon 9 a huge nod:
Whats even better?
To break through distraction, you need consistent messaging and content output to stay relevant.
It’s why founders respond to tweets, why they participate in AMAs (question and answer sessions), and even now appear in live videos.
That’s why the team will be recording at the event.
Talk to users, developers, investors, and customers and tell their stories.
At the same time, you can also get valuable product feedback.
My friend @shayyydz picked her first crypto wallet. At the time of writing, the post had 5,200 views because she picked @rainbowdotme.
Finally, if you are a founder or builder — this is the most important thing:
Let’s go back to the question “Why are you still here?” and do some self-examination.
No one knows your why better than you do. Tell us why you’re building and why it matters. These stories are not only the vision you convey to your team, but also the core of how you recruit new members, attract investors, and build your community.
Keep repeating these stories and trying different content formats.
Thank you for reading this far. If you would like, please tell me your story.
