Funding, Users, Retention: A Growth Guide for 2026 Crypto Projects

2025-11-26 16:31

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When content saturation, rising ad costs, and channel fragmentation occur, where is the key to growth?

Original Article Title: Crypto Marketing Trends & Predictions: 2026 and Beyond
Original Article Author: @emilyxlai
Translation: Peggy, BlockBeats

Editor's Note: Marketing in the crypto industry is undergoing a profound transformation: trend lifecycles are becoming shorter, competition is intensifying, and traditional strategies are gradually becoming ineffective. For entrepreneurs, growth leaders, and marketing teams, understanding these changes is not only a matter of survival but also a key advantage.

This article, based on a speech by Emily Lai, Chief Marketing Officer of Hype Partners, systematically outlines the 7 core marketing trends in crypto for 2026, covering recruiting, performance marketing, content creation, channel diversification, event experiences, incentive mechanisms, and AI-driven operations. It also shares industry predictions and a set of forward-thinking frameworks to stay ahead.

The industry is evolving rapidly. How can you seize opportunities and avoid falling behind? This article will give you the answers.

Below is the original article:

The crypto industry is ever-changing, with extremely short attention spans, trends that come and go quickly, and increasingly condensed lifecycles.

During the g(t)m con1 conference last Sunday (November 16), I shared observations and experiences from the past year and presented forward-looking insights for 2026.

The core of this talk was to share our team's vision of the industry's future with entrepreneurs, growth leaders, and marketing experts, discuss what this means for your marketing strategy, and how to stay ahead in the competition.

Ten Months, Enough to Change Many Things

Since my keynote speech at EthDenver in February 2025, we have witnessed: over 319 new stablecoin additions; institutional and Wall Street involvement through enterprise blockchain, DAT, ETFs, and fintech giants adopting stablecoins; a relaxed regulatory environment, with the introduction of the GENIUS Act and the US welcoming a "crypto-friendly" president; a growth of over 27% in new token issuance, reaching 5.67 billion by the time of writing; a surge in crypto payment card options, with card transaction volumes on traceable blockchains reaching $375 million in October 2025 alone; a prediction market boom, with @Kalshi and @Polymarket setting new trading volume records and new players entering; and the launch of new crypto-native banks and mobile-first financial applications.

Crypto in 2024 vs. Today

Last November, the first g(t)m con was held in Bangkok. The main trends at that time included: team-led marketing, founder personal branding, AI agents, interactive "reply guys," brand mascots, airdrops, intern accounts, and the mysterious concept of "Mindshare" (brand awareness) proposed by the InfoFi platform.

One year later, the industry landscape has significantly shifted: from a focus on liquidity in the Asia Pacific region, to the resurgence of ICOs, and now to the rise of "CT Leads," the pace of change in the crypto industry is truly astonishing.

User Mindshare ≠ Growth

RIP Mindshare

Over the past year, several highly anticipated TGEs (Token Generation Events) experienced weak buying pressure despite high visibility, with price performance far below crypto

Twitter (CT) sentiment expectations. From a KPI perspective, the industry has refocused on user acquisition (encompassing B2B and B2C) and retention.
From a narrative and industry meta-trends perspective, ecosystems and applications are beginning to emphasize the message of "revenue and repurchase." Internal discussions are also focused on token strategies, tokenomics, and incentive design to mitigate selling pressure.

As infrastructure, base-layer protocols, and middleware continue to mature, the industry's focus is shifting from chains and ecosystems to applications. As traditional financial institutions begin to deploy capital and fintech applications with millions of users enter the blockchain space, this not only brings legitimacy to the entire industry but, more importantly, allows us to reach new users beyond CT.

With improved user experience, emerging applications, and trust being established, the addressable market size and audience for conversion are constantly expanding. This also means that Web2 user acquisition strategies, once considered negative ROI/ROAS, are starting to become reasonable again.

Hot and Not: Trend Check

Below is a subjective and non-exhaustive list of "hot" and "not" trends. I first compiled my own views, then collected input from a crypto VC friend, as well as opinions from crypto marketing groups and CT.

Next, I broke down these trends and observations into 7 main themes, and provided a high-level overview and synthesis, summarizing my learning and observations for the year 2025.

Originally allocated only 25 minutes for the speech, but thanks to @clairekart's tolerance, I was able to share in a "stream of consciousness" style on stage for 45 minutes.

Growth Roles Recruitment & Job Market

Take a look at @safaryclub's latest marketing job board

As the industry matures, we see late-stage companies as well as Web2 enterprises, when recruiting crypto marketing talents, requiring more specialization, rather than the traditional "all-around marketing lead." Many recruiters also mentioned a significant increase in demand for senior or leadership-level marketing roles (such as CMO), a decrease in remote work flexibility, and an increased acceptance of Web2 marketing talent.

For junior marketing professionals without Web2 marketing experience, the threshold is higher than ever, as the market is increasingly flooded with native crypto talent (think of the ecosystem failures or losses over the past four years).

Performance Marketing

At last year's November g(t)m con in Bangkok, I shared about data-driven marketing, focusing on the funnel model and key metrics. It felt important at the time, and even more relevant now.

Performance marketing is making a comeback, as the industry refocuses on user acquisition and retention. This means: installation tracking tools (on-chain, product/web, distribution channels); growth experiments; blending paid and organic traffic; transitioning from social tasks to liquidity tasks; precise KOL marketing campaigns, etc.

We see more projects using or inquiring about tools such as:

@spindl_xyz, @gohypelab, @themiracle_io: for native wallet airdrops

@tunnl_io, @yapdotmarket: for targeted micro KOL bounty campaigns

@turtledotxyz, @liquidity_land: for liquidity marketing campaigns

Moreover, there are even more targeted strategies: I've been in touch with some perpetual contract DEXs that employ a "white-glove" user onboarding approach, even direct messaging whale users or leveraging Asia-Pacific region trading KOLs to gain initial traction (of course, accompanied by rewards).

At the same time, Web2's paid advertising channels have re-entered the picture, including paid social, search ads, and out-of-home ads (OOH). One underestimated channel that still exists is Telegram advertising. In the future, with AI ecosystems like LLM and OpenAI building ad product suites, we will see new ad placement scenarios.

Content, Content, Content

This year, we've seen an explosive surge of content creators and videos on social platforms, the timeline flooded with various types of content: from vloggers, short video creators, to technical tutorial videos, live streams, and even movie-grade narratives...

Simultaneously, InfoFi platforms have driven the rise of the "brand ambassador" role, individuals who actively post ("yap") to promote projects in hopes of gaining rewards. However, I believe this trend is not sustainable, and "yappers" have already made it to my OUT list.

As I left the DevConnect venue last week, I joked that DJI's revenue must be skyrocketing because there were microphones and cameras everywhere on-site. We are in the season of content creators.

Some creators are freelancers, creating content for brands they love, such as @coinempress and @DAppaDanDev. Brands are also starting to hire full-time content creators to produce videos, vlogs, host spaces, and even leverage the creator's personal brand (like CT Leads @alexonchain). @dee_centralized is one of the leaders in short-form video content in the crypto wave.

Six weeks ago, I visited the @solana office in New York City and toured Solana Studio — a content space designed for founders and creators, where individuals like @bangerz and @jakeclaychain produce content.

We also saw brands hiring actors, Hollywood-level studios, and photographers to create high-quality content and advertisements. @aave started ramping up content on Instagram (as a smart strategy to hype up its retail mobile app), while @ethereumfnd brought in storytelling creators like @lou3ee.

Content formats are also diversifying: in addition to text and video, there are live series (like @boysclubworld), static series, podcasts, short video clips, 3D or AI announcement videos, and more. @OctantApp is providing funding for creators, and I recently hosted a workshop discussing the psychological factors that brands value in content creation.

At Hype (@hypepartners), we held four content creator workshops during DevConnect Week and introduced @web3nikki to lead a new short video department in January. Content will continue to saturate, with quality, depth, and production level becoming increasingly important, while venturing beyond the crypto community to reach new users is equally crucial.

Beyond the X World

This year at Hype, we explored (and re-explored) new channels, including YouTube, Reddit, AI SEO (such as Perplexity, GPT), Instagram, and Whop. In my talk, I especially highlighted LinkedIn and TikTok.

Take, for example, @Scroll_ZKP co-founder @sandypeng: For those not often on LinkedIn, she consistently posted in 2025, growing from zero to 6.3 million impressions and 31,000 followers, sharing her strategy and data (first time public, thanks Sandy).

Sandy Peng (co-founder of Scroll)'s LinkedIn

In January this year, we noticed a significant increase in brands' demand for channels like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Therefore, we brought in @web3nikki and established a short video department focusing on brand growth and user acquisition, with a strong emphasis on TikTok. All team members are native TikTok users, familiar with the algorithm, skilled in creating viral content, and capable of adjusting content strategy to have a crypto perspective.

Since the establishment of the department, we have collaborated with 12 clients, accumulating a wealth of experience and insights.

Events Are Becoming More Immersive and Exclusive

As side events to crypto conferences have become oversaturated (often exceeding 500 events per week), organizers are increasingly competing to attract attendees. This trend has also extended to event swag: higher quality, beautifully designed, and exclusively given. This year, we have seen a significant rise in private dinners.

@metamask set a new benchmark at the EthCC Cannes event in July: exclusively for invited guests, featuring boat, helicopter, and plane rides with KOLs and content creators.

@raave continues to set the standard for crypto music events, inviting world-class DJs and creating top-tier production. Ticket acquisition is tiered, exclusive, and gradually released through a series of marketing activities.

This type of experience is not only happening in physical settings but also extending into the digital world: airdrop unboxing, mini-games, Buzzfeed-style personality tests, and other shareable interactive experiences are on the rise. We are seeing more and more inspiration from Web2 brand events, flash mob concepts, and influencer happenings being introduced into the crypto space.

Last week, we hosted a candlelight concert with @octantapp. You can see a snippet from the event here. The event was by invitation only, as the venue couldn't accommodate all 20,000 people. If you'd like to attend the next experience, please reach out to @cryptokwueen or me.

Reshaping and Redesigning the Incentive Mechanism

This year, we have seen incentive activities shift from airdrops back to ICOs. Some incentives have been repositioned as privileges:

“Being able to buy this token itself is a privilege” (similar to the 2021 NFT whitelist)

“Buy now and receive the privilege of a discounted purchase”

“Stake now to earn higher returns and/or points from multiple protocols”

“To receive the most airdrops, discounts, or points, you must become a top-tier member” (similar to airline and hotel membership tiers)

All of this reminds me of banks and Web2 fintech companies that package product usage and access as a privilege. My Chase emails often say, “Congratulations! You are pre-qualified for a mortgage refinance.”

In the future, we will continue to see incentive programs evolve, moving closer to loyalty and identity tiering logic.

Application of AI in Marketing and Operations

Here are the AI trends I’ve observed in the marketing field and our experience building an internal operational “context engine” at Hype.

This September, we established the Hype AI department led by @antefex_moon (our VP of AI). For more details, check out CEO @0xDannyHype’s introduction.

We have extensively tested AI at various touchpoints to enhance work quality, research, operations, data measurement, and project management. This requires ongoing testing and iteration.

We have also launched a new service line: AI SEO / LLM SEO, ensuring your company appears in AI prompts based on being positioned correctly in the training data. Web2 tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush have started offering AI visibility metrics. Meanwhile, OpenAI has formally announced exploring ad platforms that will bring new advertising scenarios and marketing strategies.

Other Predictions

The above trends and observations have directly impacted some of the business and marketing decisions we've made at Hype. Before sharing my "Stay Ahead" framework, I gathered predictions from the Hype team regarding crypto marketing. You can read insights from @0xdannyhype, @ChrisRuzArc, @groverGPT, @izaakonx, @Timmbo_Slice, and others:

How to Stay Ahead

The lifecycle of trends is constantly shortening, due to:

Decreasing barriers to entry (e.g., leveraging AI, the internet, and tools has made content creation easier than ever)

The limited size of the crypto industry audience

The continuous emergence of new companies vying for attention every day

Marketing requires continuous innovation, testing, and experimentation. Teams that adopt new strategies early can leverage the "freshness" to capture brand awareness until the market saturates that strategy. You can also retest old strategies and aesthetics to rekindle a sense of "novelty". It's a constantly looping game.

When others turn left, you turn right; when everyone is turning left and right, you sit under a tree, enter a higher dimension, explore untouched areas. Then repeat the process.

To stay ahead, you must: stay abreast of industry trends; draw inspiration from outside the crypto industry; think from first principles (this requires brainstorming, deep thinking, and evaluation, not just copying others).

Some questions to help you define predictions and marketing bets include: which trends will become obsolete in the next 6-12 months? Which strategies are effective in Web2 or other industries but have not yet been applied in the crypto space? What user behaviors or technological changes will reshape marketing?