The industry doesn't have any new retail investors left—what should projects do now?
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The industry doesn't have any new retail investors left—what should projects do now?
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Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Emily Lai, CMO at Hype
Translation: TechFlow
Crypto marketing is overwhelming—choosing the right channels, crafting messages, coordinating teams. Should you invest in an event? Launch an ambassador program? How should you structure incentives for a hackathon? There’s always something to do.
Great marketers simplify the process, create plans, execute effectively, and help you save budget.
Image: An effective marketing strategy helps clarify seemingly complex situations
Yet, crypto marketing today has become increasingly challenging.
What’s going on?
As founders, builders, and marketers, what can we do?
Why? Here are three reasons: NO NEW USERS!!!
Reason 1: Increased Competition
The entire crypto ecosystem—blockchains, infrastructure, and dApps (decentralized applications)—is saturated, with every project competing for attention using its own token.
Image: Data source: On-chain data from @defillama, dApp and token data from @alvaapp
Image: For example, my friend @mumufengg has never used any on-chain product (no hot wallet or dApp experience), but his first impression reflects new user confusion
According to data from @DefiLlama, there are now over 356 blockchains.
After a talk, I spoke with @cattybk (from @thirdweb), who told me they’ve worked with over 2,000 EVM chains alone. So I checked @coingecko's data:
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Over 8,700 L1 chains
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Over 5,200 L2 chains
And beyond that:
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More than 1,500 AI agents, according to @cookiedotfun
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Over 50,000 new tokens created daily, per @pumpdotfun and @Dune
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44 narratives tracked by @KaitoAI
The question is: Are new users flooding in to support these new chains, infrastructures, dApps, and tokens?
Judging by Total Value Locked (TVL), this cycle performs similarly to the last, aligning with Google search trends for “crypto”—which show declining interest, indicating waning mainstream attention.
Even if new users arrive, they face hundreds of chain choices, not to mention dozens of wallets. It’s more confusing than ever.
Image: Data source: TVL trend comparison via @defillama
Image: Google Trends showing global search interest in “Crypto”
Reason 2: Fragmented Target Audiences
The crypto audience is highly fragmented, with different motivations across groups, further complicating marketing efforts.
Developers and Builders:
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If you're building a blockchain/network/ecosystem, you need developers to build apps that attract users.
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This requires developer-focused marketing and onboarding. Developer motivations may include leveraging your tech stack for unique ideas, receiving grants, or seeing higher success potential through network effects and distribution.
Customers and Users:
If you're a protocol, dApp, middleware, or service provider, you need users to generate revenue.
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dApp teams may be considered customers within an ecosystem.
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Note: users aren't always token holders—some token holders may simply be speculators without using your product.
Venture capitalists, angel investors, and other investors:
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These groups fund you, motivated primarily by ROI, often realized through tokens—which don’t always correlate directly with technology, user count, or developer activity.
Retail investors and token speculators:
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They may or may not be your actual users. Their goal is high ROI via token trading profits.
Technical Partners:
Typically other infrastructure or middleware projects. As blockchains scale in speed, security, and cost-efficiency, a whole middleware sector has emerged—including chain/wallet abstraction, cross-chain bridges, interoperability, modularity, etc.
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Additionally, service providers—not just agencies—but blockchain explorers, ad tech, unlock tools, etc.
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These partners represent broad audiences, explaining why business development (BD) is so critical in the industry.
Listing Partners:
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Exchanges, launchpads, market makers, intermediaries, KOL trading, etc. Their performance directly impacts your token's success, and their motivation is typically ROI-driven.
Regulators and institutional investors:
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These stakeholders can bring massive liquidity—or shut you down.
Beyond all these audience types, crypto’s global nature intensifies fragmentation—requiring cultural sensitivity, cross-timezone coordination, and localized marketing management.
All of this makes crypto marketing significantly harder. In contrast, Web2 marketing is far more straightforward, with clearer messaging and aligned incentives.
For example:
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Selling health supplements: target health-conscious individuals, seniors, and high-income groups.
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Selling winter jackets: target people in cold climates, skiers, mountaineers, snowboarders.
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Selling protein powder: target fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders; exclude vegans (if it's whey-based).
Reason 3: Immature Technology and Damaged User Trust
Since Bitcoin’s inception, media has declared it "dead" 415 times. Beyond that, crypto remains notorious for scams, money laundering, and criminal activity.
Image: Some crypto headlines might make your mom worry about your career choice
In 2021, the NFT and metaverse boom attracted many new users. Back then, celebrities flocked in. If you were in the space, you likely got messages from old friends asking questions.
But it all stopped when high gas fees, crashing token prices, and painful user losses surfaced—triggering reputational damage and eroded trust.
Mainstream users left. We entered a building (bear market) phase—while thousands of new chains and middleware emerged.
Image: Industry focus swings between “We need more apps” and “We need more infrastructure.” (Inspired by visualization from @jillrgunter)
So, why are you still here?
I don’t know—take a deep breath, reflect, and tell me your reason. (I genuinely want to hear your story—it matters for your marketing too.)
For me, I fell down the Bitcoin rabbit hole in my college apartment back in 2013 because I loved its values of sovereignty and self-reliance.
Since then, I've also seen crypto widely used in places like Argentina, Indonesia, and Turkey.
For instance, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I mostly survived on crypto stablecoins to combat insane inflation:
Besides that, many companies are already using blockchain tech while fully abstracting it away.
Huge shoutout to @benLLS from @octantapp, who mentioned @jia_DeFi—a company unlocking capital and opportunities in emerging markets—and Hala Systems, working to reduce harm, improve safety, and stabilize communities.
There are also companies like @bombocommunity, securing music ticketing with NFTs while abstracting away crypto jargon. @cattybk also pointed out casual blockchain-based games gaining users outside crypto Twitter.
Moreover, @mariashen (from @electriccapital) releases an annual developer report. While developer numbers are down from the last cycle, Web3 developers overall are still growing—indicating we’re not attracting net new users.
The reality: Despite 16 years, we’re still early
Image: Classic early adopter chart from the book “Crossing the Chasm”
We’ve crossed the chasm—the high-risk-tolerant mainstream has accepted Bitcoin and treats crypto as an asset class.
But we haven’t yet conveyed: Why do we need thousands of blockchains? Or delivered an app so compelling that people use it daily, surpassing Instagram, Temu, TikTok, WhatsApp, or ChatGPT—platforms that grew much faster than crypto.
What does this mean? Are we not building things people need? Or… is it just not ready yet?
I believe there are many kind, well-intentioned people pushing this industry forward. I know some of them personally. For example, @vijaymichalik, @arlery, @motherpredicte, @divine_economy, @alipaints—just to name a few.
If you’re building crypto with good intentions, what marketing fundamentals should you master and apply?
These are two slides I frequently show in my “What is Marketing?” talk—they distill marketing strategy into four words.
You can watch me explain this in detail in a video collaboration with @modenetwork: Watch here.
Another version was shared at the last India Blockchain Week (@ibwofficial), focusing on founder/personal branding context, using @megaeth_labs as a case study: Watch here.
Three key recommendations for acquiring crypto users
The crypto space has seven audience types across multiple geographies. Plus, internal team members (BD, product, marketing, creative, legal, etc.) must collaborate.
In one of @moremarketsxyz's AMOS series, hosted by @xkonjin, I joined @reka_eth and invited @jaambutties (CMO of @nillionnetwork) to share how he orchestrates brand campaigns.
This coordination brings all stakeholders together, amplifying marketing impact and helping capture scarce, valuable attention.
Ultimately, given the technology is still early and the industry oversaturated, we must do things that don’t scale—like guiding newcomers one by one, engaging personally, and educating them.
While I love showing @pumpdotfun to friends completely new to crypto, I also have to give huge credit to @a1lon9:
What’s even better?
To break through fragmented attention, you need consistent messaging and continuous content output to stay relevant.
That’s why founders reply to tweets, participate in AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions), and now appear in live streams.
That’s why teams record events.
Talk to users, developers, investors, customers—tell their stories.
Along the way, you’ll also gather invaluable product feedback.
My friend @shayyydz picked her first crypto wallet. At the time of writing, her post had 5,200 views after she chose @rainbowdotme.
Finally, if you’re a founder or builder—this is the most important thing:
Let’s revisit the earlier question: “Why are you still here?” and reaffirm your purpose.
No one knows your “why” better than you. Tell us why you’re building, and why it matters. These stories aren’t just vision-setting for your team—they’re core to recruiting talent, attracting investors, and building community.
Keep repeating these stories. Experiment with different formats.
Thank you for reading this far. If you’d like, please share your story with me too.
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@emilyxlai
