Cryptotechnology projects should not settle for shallow marketing | Opinion

For Crypto to achieve mainstream adoption, it doesn’t need to consider marketing as a token price booster. It must be an integral part of the process.

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Crypto is a highly technical engineering-driven category built by people solving extremely difficult mathematics, encryption, software engineering, and logical problems. However, as the industry prepares for a wave of optimism and friendly regulations in 2025, projects that rest on technical glory put themselves at a disadvantage.

I don’t blame the technical crypto team for being skeptical of marketing. In this category, you will come across many self-branded “Web3” or “crypto” marketers who are driving a kind of marketing that is not rooted in fundamentals or comprehensive strategies. Instead, they usually show close connections with specific crypto projects and tactics such as paying for major opinion leaders (KOLS), managing influencers, knowing how to shit in X, and having a pulse of crypto memes dujours. (To be fair, there are all of that locations.)

Crypto marketing is different and has its own challenges

A crypto project that aims to be sure to be a raucous year must be prepared to bolster marketing efforts and not settle down shallow tactics. When monitoring marketing roles and agency teams to support your project, here are some important skills you should look for:

1. Ability to effectively navigate decentralized ecosystems and become an important point of integration

Cryptographic ecosystems behave fundamentally differently from other sectors. Projects often have global teams, different organisations driving aspects of governance, technology, and business development, and vibrant communities that are not just consumers, but also active participants in the evolution of the ecosystem.

When marketers come to cryptography from traditional, centralized organizations, there is a big change in mindset. Rather than deciding and implementing a top-down strategy, marketing in a distributed setting requires the ability to listen, observe, integrate and reflect the world that was already there.

In reality, this means that you need to look for marketing talents that can maintain strong relationships and lines of communication with many community organizations, ecosystem projects, and stakeholders. Marketing teams should be a key feature of integration and alignment, and see connections that lead to insights from technical teams. You’re too busy building with a distributed silo to see the big picture.

2. Ability to deepen the understanding of technology while assisting in story crystallization

It’s not a mystery why Crypto has yet to achieve mainstream adoption. There is little other than an average consumer speculate about the potential success of various projects. The Crypto category is still solving all-new infrastructure plumbing (layers and piping layers).

Crypto marketers need to be skilled in a very important way. They need to understand the technology with enough depth and nuance to devise tactics for a wide range of audiences, from experienced developers to encrypted consumers. And they need to be able to do this while helping the tech team crystallize a more prominent vision and story.

The Crypto team recommends viewing marketing not as a comfort or a set of gimmicks, but as an important feature that expands and completes the engineering cycle. Marketing isn’t just about clicking and getting your eyes. It is about building a product that meets the market desires that require a continuous feedback loop between developers and marketers.

3. Ability to move as fast as the industry needs when breaking out of “React” mode

Cryptography is volatile and fast-moving, resulting in many teams in this category being in a constant state of responsiveness. But it’s agile enough to respond and not having a clear strategy.

It’s also really difficult to escape the pressure of “prices rising.” These tactics do not replace robust marketing strategies focused on solving problems and promoting meaningful audience engagement and activity. Effective marketing requires a shift from token-centric narratives to building sustainable ecosystems that users care about.

Crypto teams need to avoid being very stubborn about price increases for short-term tokens and forget to build a solid strategy to keep them in the long run. In many cases, the technical roadmap for these projects has been around for many years, acknowledging the time and effort required to achieve their engineering vision. This should apply the same idea to marketing efforts.

Yes, the best technology still needs good marketing

For crypto to achieve mainstream adoption, marketing should not be considered a token price booster or an afterthought. It must be an integral part of the process and drive innovation, user recruitment and long-term growth.

The technical team, which has successfully overcome the noise since 2025, is a team that invests in marketing as a strategic function, rather than as a peripheral activity. And while it’s certainly challenging to find talent and teams who are comfortable in technical discussions about roll-up frameworks, they’re just as they’re making beautiful creative assets, they’re there.

Author: Carolyn Rogers

Carolyn Rogers He is Head of Marketing at Blokhaus, a creative and marketing agency focused on Crypto, Fintech and Emerging Tech. Previously, I spent over nine years at IBM in a variety of enterprise technology roles, including cloud, AI, blockchain, and automation. Blokhaus leads marketing strategies for clients, including global campaigns, integrated activations and content initiatives.