2024 is a year of change for the Web3 industry, with significant changes in the market environment and user scale. Entering 2025, the number of daily active crypto users worldwide has exceeded 18 million, an increase of 202% over last year. This means that Web3 projects face a wider audience, and marketing methods also need to be upgraded accordingly.

At the same time, the marketing boom driven by celebrities has caused the market value of " memecoin " to surge by 500% to $120 billion by the end of 2024. These data show that marketing has an increasing influence on project exposure and user acquisition. In order to help crypto industry practitioners grasp the latest trends, this article will deeply analyze the main marketing methods and evolution of the Web3 industry in 2025, and make trend predictions and analysis based on authoritative report data. It is hoped that through a clearly structured discussion, it will provide readers with insights that can be used as a long-term reference.

Evolution of marketing methods: KOL, media, public relations, SEO and community

KOL Internet celebrity placement

In the Web3 field, promotion through key opinion leaders (KOLs) is still one of the main marketing methods, involving platforms such as Twitter (X), YouTube, and Telegram. In the second half of 2024, as the market picks up, many projects will shift their marketing budgets back to KOL placement. For example, Polkadot spent about $37 million on marketing in the first half of 2024 alone, with more than half of the budget invested in KOL promotion. The content published by these KOLs apparently received tens of millions of views and likes, but after in-depth analysis, it was found that some accounts had problems such as fake fans and cheating. It can be seen that KOL marketing is shifting from pursuing superficial data to emphasizing real influence .

Many projects are beginning to pay more attention to the quality of KOL audiences and community stickiness rather than the number of fans. At the same time, the KOL marketing ecosystem is becoming more professional - more and more projects are choosing to work with professional agencies. In a 2024 Messari survey, more than 62% of Web3 startups hired professional Web3 marketing agencies to assist in promotion in the first three months of their launch. These agencies not only coordinate KOL resources, but also provide one-stop services such as content planning and AMA event organization.

However, it should be noted that as more agents enter this field, intensified industry competition has led to a continuous decline in agency service rates, from a profit margin of 50-80% in 2020 to about 10% today. Looking ahead to 2025, KOL placement is expected to be more rational : the quotations of top KOLs may be adjusted due to market fluctuations, and small and medium-sized KOLs can stand out if they have a highly sticky community. It is not uncommon for a piece of content to charge tens of thousands of dollars. When selecting KOLs, project parties will pay more attention to integrity and conversion effects.

News Media and PR

As the crypto industry gradually moves towards the mainstream, the importance of news media public relations has further increased. On the one hand, top crypto media ( such as Cointelegraph, The Block, Decrypt, etc. ) are still the preferred channels for projects to release major news and establish an authoritative image.

On the other hand, traditional mainstream media have also begun to report more on blockchain and Web3 topics — especially in the context of a clearer regulatory environment and Fortune 500 companies getting involved in crypto. In order to gain exposure, many projects have invested in well-known media in 2024 through sponsorship or soft articles. It has been reported that the Polkadot project spent $138,000 to publish several research reports and sponsored articles on The Block. In addition, some projects have also tried unconventional means of brand exposure, such as purchasing advertising space on popular industry websites (Polkado once invested tens of thousands of dollars to purchase dynamic logo displays on Coingecko and CoinMarketCap) and even outdoor high-end placements (there was a budget of $180,000 to print the Polkadot logo on a fleet of European private jets in order to target high-net-worth individuals).

The effects of these PR investments are polarized : innovative marketing scenarios can bring topics, but overly expensive and poorly converted campaigns also raise questions in the community. For example, the community once joked: "Who would buy a coin just because of a pink flame token logo on CoinMarketCap?" The trend in 2025 is that project owners will be more cautious about media PR budgets and pursue refined and ROI-oriented media strategies.

On the one hand, we leverage professional public relations teams to gain organic coverage from mainstream media at a lower cost (rather than purely paid publicity); on the other hand, we enhance media relations through the output of high-quality content and build project leaders into industry thought leaders to gain more free exposure.

SEO and Content Marketing

Although a large number of crypto users are active on social platforms, search engine optimization (SEO) cannot be ignored in Web3 marketing. Many new users will first search for the project's official website and evaluation information through Google when they come into contact with a project.

Since 2024, Web3 projects have invested more energy in producing long-term and effective content , including writing technical blogs, writing white paper interpretations, and making novice tutorials, hoping to obtain continuous traffic through keyword rankings. For example, the content output around keywords such as DeFi tutorials and NFT guides has increased significantly, and a considerable proportion of the website traffic of some top projects comes from search engines.

This content marketing strategy not only brings a stable user education channel to the project, but also helps the brand establish a professional and credible image in the minds of users. Especially during the bear market, SEO-friendly content accumulation is a low-cost, high-return marketing investment. Looking ahead, as market supervision becomes stricter, paid advertising channels may be limited, and winning search traffic and natural dissemination through content will become a long-term strategy for Web3 marketing . We expect that in 2025, more authoritative industry reports and in-depth research will be used by projects for content marketing to improve SEO while meeting the needs of media and users for high-quality information.

Social media communication and community operation

The Web3 industry was born in the Internet community, so social media and community marketing have always been the core means. In addition to the aforementioned KOL cooperation, the project also communicates directly with users through official accounts on Twitter (X), Telegram, Discord, etc. In 2024, there have been some changes in the direction of social platforms : after Musk took over the X platform, the control of API permissions and spam accounts has become stricter, and some memecoin promotion accounts that use unofficial APIs to operate in batches have been collectively banned. This reminds project parties to comply with regulations when using centralized social media to avoid suddenly losing their voice. At the same time, emerging platforms are also rising: for example, decentralized social applications such as Lens and Bluesky have attracted attention from the crypto community. Although the user scale is small for the time being, it reflects the trend of the community seeking to control content ownership.

In addition, short videos and live broadcasts will have a greater impact on crypto communication in 2024, especially among young users. Many projects have begun to operate TikTok, Instagram Reels, etc., introducing project highlights through popular short videos to attract the attention of non-cryptocurrency users.

In terms of community operations, Telegram and Discord are still the main strongholds : Telegram groups are very active among users in Southeast Asia and the CIS, while Discord is more favored by European and American projects and DAO organizations. Project parties are paying more and more attention to the design of community activities, such as weekly theme discussions, airdrop rewards, prize quizzes, and offline meetups, to maintain user stickiness. In 2025, it can be foreseen that community marketing will place more emphasis on cultivating loyalty and word of mouth . Instead of "just attracting new users", projects will invest more resources in core users and enable users to spread spontaneously by empowering community members (such as co-creating content and community self-governance incentives). This kind of inside-out communication is more sustainable than relying solely on social media advertising.

It is worth mentioning that the effects of social fission marketing are becoming different in different regions. In Asia, fission communication through sharing invitations to get rewards has been tried and tested. For example, the "Pinduoduo"-style group purchase discount has helped it accumulate 788 million users in 5 years; but the same routine has repeatedly hit a wall in Europe and the United States, and even caused damage to the project brand - the group buying website Groupon was once popular, with a market value of up to 16 billion US dollars, but the model of over-reliance on bargaining to attract new users caused user disgust in the West, and the market value fell to less than 320 million US dollars in ten years. Therefore, when designing social communication activities, the project must consider the cultural differences and user psychology of the target market to adjust the strategy.

Brand Building

After several rounds of bull and bear cycles, the Web3 field has become more aware of the value of brand trust. The short-term behavior of "crazy new users and quick profiteering" has cost the industry credibility. The market rectification in 2024 has also eliminated many projects that only hype. Entering 2025, building a long-term brand has become an industry consensus.

Many top projects have begun to enhance their brand image through cross-border cooperation : for example, Coinbase's Layer2 network Base launched NFT art cooperation with well-known brands such as Coca-Cola in the Onchain Summer event in 2023, which attracted mainstream attention. On the one hand, this kind of cooperation endorses Web3 projects, and on the other hand, it uses the influence of traditional brands to educate mass users.

At the same time, more and more crypto companies are launching surrounding community activities and public welfare programs to demonstrate social responsibility and dilute the atmosphere of past hype. Brand building is also reflected in the maturity of the project discourse system : in 2024, many projects began to avoid excessive technical terms and turned to telling stories in user-friendly language, positioning themselves as advocates of a certain lifestyle or concept. This shift in brand narrative helps to narrow the distance with non-technical users.

Globally, regulatory compliance has also become an important part of brand trust - especially in the European and American markets. If a project can first meet compliance requirements, it will be easier to gain the trust of users and institutions and form a brand advantage. Looking ahead, the success of Web3 projects will depend not only on technological innovation, but also on whether they can create a brand that is recognized and loved by users. Continuous content output, consistent value delivery, and multi-channel image maintenance will be the keywords for Web3 brand marketing in 2025.

Industry Trend Outlook

KOL marketing returns to value orientation

Looking ahead to 2025, KOL marketing will focus more on substantial returns and long-term partnerships. After experiencing the situation of KOLs asking for sky-high prices and a mixed bag of good and bad in the last bull market, the industry's attitude towards KOL marketing has become more mature.

At present, the influence of top KOLs is still irreplaceable, but project parties tend to sign long-term cooperation contracts rather than one-time orders to ensure the consistency and credibility of information transmission. KOLs themselves are also transforming into professional media people. Many well-known KOLs have begun to build teams to produce higher-quality content, such as in-depth research reports, interview podcasts, etc., in order to get rid of the model of relying solely on advertising for profit. Some KOLs who once focused on crypto content are expanding their horizons and combining discussions with macroeconomic and technological trends to attract a wider audience. This will help improve the overall level of KOL marketing.

In terms of price , due to the market recovery at the end of 2024, many KOL quotations once rose, but as the industry gradually rationalizes and the supply of KOLs increases, it is expected that the price of KOL placement will tend to diverge in 2025: the top KOLs with real appeal will still be "scarce and expensive", while the middle and low-level KOLs may lower their quotations due to competition, or strive for business by improving service quality. For example, strong data shows that it is difficult to charge high fees by simply forwarding posts, and projects are more willing to pay for customized content and real interaction . This also prompts KOL marketing to move towards in-depth cooperation - let KOLs deeply understand the project, participate in testing, and even become consultants, and influence their communities in a more sincere and natural way. It can be foreseen that supervision will also intervene in KOL marketing : the United States and other places have begun to require paid promotions on social platforms to indicate sponsorship attributes, and non-compliant sneaking will be hit in the future. This will further purify the market and force KOL marketing to return to compliance, transparency and value orientation.

Evolution of the social platform landscape

In 2025, changes in social media platforms themselves will also reshape the Web3 marketing landscape. First, after Twitter changed its name to X and launched a series of new features (such as subscriptions, long articles, communities, etc.), the platform ecology has changed . For KOLs, the forms of content creation are richer. They can provide in-depth content through paid subscriptions, and project parties can also consider sponsoring KOLs' subscription channels to gain continuous exposure. At the same time, if X continues to tighten its anti-Spam policy, marketing methods that rely on robots to increase traffic will be unsustainable in the future, forcing projects to improve the sophistication of their operations.

Secondly, the rise of decentralized social networking deserves attention: although the number of users is not large at present, decentralized social networking platforms such as Lens Protocol have gathered a group of loyal crypto users in 2024. If these platforms achieve breakthrough growth in 2025, project owners may need to make simultaneous arrangements, establish official accounts on on-chain social networks, issue social tokens, etc., to embrace emerging communities.

Once again, the video platforms favored by the new generation of users cannot be ignored - YouTube still occupies an important position in the field of education and popular science in the crypto circle. In addition, Twitch live broadcasts and TikTok short videos have become new stages for project storytelling. It is predicted that by 2025, video content will account for nearly 80% of Internet traffic. It can be expected that "video narrative" will be more integrated into Web3 marketing, from project prospect introductions to tutorial teaching, which may be presented in the form of short videos/live broadcasts to cater to the consumption habits of young users.

Finally, the impact of social platform policies and trends on marketing cannot be ignored : if major platforms tighten their crypto advertising policies (for example, prohibiting unauthorized token promotion), projects will need to rely more on organic content and community communication; on the contrary, if new Web3-friendly platforms emerge (assuming that there are social applications with built-in crypto wallets, etc.), it will become a new marketing blue ocean. In general, in 2025, Web3 marketers on social platforms need to be more flexible and changeable, keep up with platform rules and user migration trends in a timely manner, diversify risks and seize new opportunities.

Changes in the promotional model of public chains and Layer2

During 2023-2024, major public chains and Layer2 projects are competing fiercely for users, and each has its own unique way of publicity and promotion. From the simple and extensive launch in the early ICO era to the liquidity mining and airdrop incentives that were popular during the DeFi boom, the industry has gone through the primary stage of "trading money for volume". Entering 2025, the marketing of public chains/Layer2 will pay more attention to strategy and ecological linkage . First of all, many new public chains no longer rely on sky-high marketing budgets to open the way, but focus on developer ecosystem construction . Through hackathons (such as Base's Onchain Summer Hackathon, which offers a total of 600+ ETH bonuses) and developer funding plans, projects are attracted to build applications on their chains to achieve a "silent" promotion effect.

The cost of such technical community activities is relatively controllable, but they can breed high-quality applications, which is more valuable than extensive advertising in the long run. Secondly, cross-ecological cooperation has become a trend. Different chains have begun to jointly organize events, airdrop rewards to each other, or connect user assets through cross-chain bridges to jointly expand the market. This means that the competition of a single public chain is shifting to multi-chain collaboration, and marketing also emphasizes mutual benefit and win-win rather than bragging about each other.

Third, public chain projects have begun to learn the brand operations of Web2 enterprises , such as customizing publicity for different market segments: emphasizing the security of NFT assets on the chain for gamers, and emphasizing compliance and performance for traditional enterprises. This "one chain, multiple faces" marketing strategy will be more common in 2025. Taking Layer2 as an example, some solutions will package themselves as chains suitable for games, while others will focus on enterprise-level solutions. The focus of publicity for each track is different.

There are also changes in the user incentive model - in the past, simply issuing tokens and NFT airdrops easily led to the emergence of the wool-grabbing party. In 2025, the projects may be more inclined to task-based incentives (requiring users to complete specific interactions or contribute content to receive rewards) and equity binding (for example, holding for a certain period of time or participating in governance to enjoy airdrops). In this way, the selected users are more sticky.

Finally, judging from the tone of publicity, public chain/Layer2 projects are trying to downplay the competitive color of their opponents and instead shape the image of industry infrastructure providers. Their marketing materials are full of keywords such as "empowering developers", "connecting the real world", and "sustainable ecology", instead of blindly boasting about technical indicators such as TPS and low handling fees. This narrative shift reflects the maturity of the market - users are no longer easily impressed by performance gimmicks, but are more concerned about whether the ecology is prosperous and whether there are practical applications. Therefore, the marketing focus of public chains and Layer2 in 2025 is to show real results and user cases : such as the number of daily active addresses, successfully incubated star applications, cases of cooperation with well-known institutions, etc. These tangible data and stories will be more convincing to the people than empty promises.

Summarize

Web3 industry marketing in 2025 will be more professional, refined and diversified . The main marketing methods still include KOL placement, media public relations, SEO content, social communication, community operation and brand building, but the gameplay of each method is being upgraded and iterated.

Globally, there are obvious differences between the Asian and European markets in terms of channel preferences, user psychology, and input-output , requiring projects to adopt localized strategies. In terms of industry trends, KOL marketing is returning from a rapid advance to rational value, changes in social platforms bring new opportunities and restrictions, AI technology drives marketing into the intelligent era, and also triggers a test of authenticity, and the publicity of public chains and Layer2 is becoming more mature and pragmatic. For Web3 entrepreneurs and marketers, grasping these trends and responding flexibly will help them stand out in the fierce competition. In the new market cycle, only by focusing on users, data, and creativity can we achieve long-lasting marketing with both volume and reputation.

FAQ

Q1.What are the advantages of using ChainPeak for KOL/media promotion?
A: As an institution, we have the power to negotiate in bulk, and the price is much lower than that of individual project parties. Long-term cooperation can also enjoy customized packages and annual discounts, saving more than 30% of costs.

Q2. What will be the most effective marketing channel for Web3 projects in 2025?
There is no single channel that works for all. KOL influencer marketing, media PR exposure, community operations, and content SEO all have their own strengths. Generally speaking, a combination of strategies works best: obtaining wide exposure through authoritative media and top KOLs, while also focusing on community operations and content accumulation to improve conversion retention.

Q3. Is KOL influencer marketing still worth investing in in 2025?
It is still worthwhile, but you need to invest smarter. The endorsement of high-quality KOLs still plays an important role in increasing the visibility and trust of the project. However, you need to choose KOLs that fit the project positioning and evaluate the authenticity of their fans and the quality of their interactions. In the future, we tend to establish long-term partnerships and clearly label advertisements in compliance to achieve a more lasting impact.

Q4. Will public chain/Layer2 projects continue to distribute a large amount of coins for promotion?
Disorderly "spending money" promotion is decreasing. After reflection, public chains and Layer2 are more inclined to refined operations , such as holding hackathons, developer incentives, cross-chain cooperation, etc. to steadily expand the ecosystem, rather than simply spending money to buy advertising space. Future user incentives will focus more on quality and stickiness, rather than blindly pursuing short-term indicator growth.

You may also need these resources:
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