Disclosure: The opinions and opinions expressed here belong to the authors solely and do not represent the views or opinions of the crypto.news editorial.
“gm, gm. You’re just a “crypto brother,” right? “Someone cried across the halls of Paris Blockchain Week. He watched one of my podcast episodes and laughed, “Thank you for interviewing the founder of one of my favorite projects.” I smiled. A small flashback of how I came up with the “Degen” username hit me. It reminds us where the crypto industry was six years ago and how far we all came. And the question hangs there: Am I still “just a code brother”?
On the surface, it was a simple inquiry, but weighed more than he intended. It wasn’t just my username. It was about my identity as a Web3 professional. I wore a collared shirt, a Gillette jacket and smart casual pants, but I have never felt that it was so connected to the industry, not exactly Web3 uniforms.
Many of my friends pursuing careers within the industry have encountered the same challenges. What do you think, act, or dress like a Web3 native these days?
Recently, my team and I have been helping founders “clean up” their image. Relocate teams from the Crypto project to digital asset companies and dress up blockchain technology with language regulators, agencies and mainstream users.
From cryptocurrencies to digital assets
Crypto has grown. At least, it started. What once felt like a chaotic, unauthorized playground of speculation and hype has now evolved into something more structured.
Politicians, bankers and institutions no longer call our beloved Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) cryptocurrencies. They tend to call them digital assets. A term that defines the next stage in the industry. If it must be accurate, the term digital asset means something that has value or is digitally created and stored. It includes a wide range of items, from photos, documents and videos to cryptocurrency and tokenized assets. But my point isn’t about definitions or linguistics, but to observe how the industry is gaining legitimacy, something that phrasing institutions prefer.
This isn’t just a brand, it reflects how ecosystems are evolving. Regulators are beginning to define rules more clearly. The US Stable Law and Senate Genius Law – will create a comprehensive regulatory framework for stable US publishers, including licensing requirements, reserve standards, AML obligations, and consumer protection. It is inevitable that other countries will continue. There will be clear regulations across the board in the coming years.
Coinbase became the first company from the code listed on the S&P 500. BlackRock has released a Bitcoin ETF. Politicians openly discuss crypto policy in public forums as well as in subcommittees behind closed doors.
The code is no longer a fringe. It is incompletely in mainstream ecosystems, but it is undeniably.
Convergence of cryptography and mainstream communication
The crypto industry is evolving and is evolving rapidly. Talknemics is changing to provide real value to token holders. Regulations are evolving. Retail investors are skeptical of projects where the white paper is not tidy and do not invest based on hype. They invest in hype for real-world problems the project is trying to solve (we couldn’t protect this joke for ourselves).
However, cryptographic communications have not evolved to meet the wider transformations happening across the industry.
Many projects are short-term and completely ignore annual or quarterly communication strategies. They focus on col to pump tokens in short bursts rather than placing founders or companies for long-term success. PR is often treated as a paid play hustle rather than a brand building tool.
Meanwhile, the corporate world has deliberately reduced communications planning, structuring and implementation for decades. Crypto, on the other hand, lives primarily in parallel universes. We began discussing the project on Internet forums and moved to telegrams and discordant private communities. These days, the industry has relied heavily on cryptoX influencers. For years we have worked with a self-contained bubble: chaotic, jargon-rich, proudly disrespectful. The industry has created its own ambiguous languages, memes, and unwritten rules. We laughed at the degree and being called “retardio” and wrote Miradi at the end of the random post. It was part of the culture.
For a while, it worked. But if the industry wants to take it seriously beyond the echo chamber, that communication needs to grow. Because social media, its voice tone, its choice of words, its visual appearance, even what its founder wears on stage, it’s something that companies agree with these reputations. Because it’s not just what you build. It’s about how you tell your story.
Too many cryptographic projects are still talking in code now. Mainstream journalists, on the other hand, only appear when something explodes. That needs to be changed. You need to go from memes to messaging. From chaos to clarity.
This does not mean that we abandon our culture. The cipher can maintain its edge. But that means learning how to talk to a wide range of audiences, including investors, regulators, developers, and everyday users. The space is fragmented and we no longer talk to homogeneous groups of Web3 natives. Therefore, messaging must be adapted.
The sad truth is that many modern communications agencies serving the industry are part of the problem. Web3-Native agents understand the inside out of technology, but often miss the strategic rigor, structure and polish that institutional clients and viewers expect. Conversely, traditional PR companies used in boardrooms and blue chips are stumbling over basic concepts such as Tokenomics and L2S.
The results are clear: misaligned messages. I missed the opportunity. And an industry that is struggling to explain itself to the world. It’s time to fix it. Not only for reliability, but for mainstream adoption.
Everything is good, but what do you think?
The role of the communications team in Crypto is simple. We need to act as a bridge between our founders and the world. Developers focus on the code. Users care about what the code can do for them. Good communication clearly translates complexity. It helps people understand why a project is important, how it works, and why you should trust it. It sounds easy, but it’s actually hard to do well.
Start with the structure. Plan your communications quarterly, not reactive. It has a clear narrative arc: what are you making, why now, who needs to hear it? Building a rhythm around releases, media outreach and community updates.
Consistency builds reliability. Stop sounding like a hype machine and start to sound like a real company. If the industry wants to take it seriously by institutions, regulators, or the public, messaging needs to evolve. Not soon about hype or internal jokes. The project to learn to communicate clearly with mainstream audiences continues.
Comms experts play a key role when Crypto breaks out of the echo chamber. It is not enough to land scope in a regular Web3-Native publication, as it is important to the community. For projects aimed at reaching mainstream audiences, gaining visibility in a wider range of business, tech, and cultural media is important. That means creating stories that resonate beyond toconemics and roadmap. You need stories that tell you real-world impact, user experience, and long-term value.
You need to avoid jargon. Most users are not interested in how bridging works, blockchain consensus mechanisms, or other technical details. What they care about is simple. Does this make their lives more convenient and affordable?
Finally, we encourage founders to think about positioning early. Who are you talking to from developers, degrees, regulators, institutions? If you are targeting mainstream users or serious investors, your public tone is important. You can’t lead in “GM” and will not show up on Parker if you’re trying to gain trust from Wall Street. The outfit, the tone of the voice, the vocabulary, all of which sends a signal. Make sure it’s the right thing.
