In Web3 projects, those who win KOLs win the world
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In Web3 projects, those who win KOLs win the world
Popularity is a double-edged sword; the attention brought by KOLs can certainly help a project gain momentum, but once it backfires, the impact will be swift and precise.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Liu Honglin
If traditional entrepreneurship revolves around "product is king" or "channel is king," then in today's erratic, information-overloaded Web3 world, an increasing number of project teams will tell you a hard truth: he who wins the KOLs, wins the game.
The success of a Web3 project has never been something that can be sustained solely by technology or a whitepaper. No matter how "decentralized" your project claims to be, its热度, visibility, and community engagement ultimately depend on certain "centralized" individuals—commonly known as KOLs, or "key opinion leaders."
Let’s clarify: this "game" isn’t necessarily about capturing market share, but rather achieving that moment when "everyone is talking about you"—a palpable presence. In crypto, especially in an environment where on-chain transactions happen at lightning speed and user attention spans are extremely short, whether your project gets discussed, whether someone shills it, hosts live streams, tweets about it, or pulls users into groups, could directly determine if you can complete your first funding round, recover after a failed launch, or even survive the bear market at all.
We’ve encountered numerous projects with dazzling whitepapers that, one week after launch, see their Telegram groups fall silent, Twitter posts go unshared, and DEX trading volumes dwindle to near zero. When asked if they ran KOL marketing, they reply: “We don’t want to do that ‘pump-and-dump crypto thing’—we’re going the technical route, long-term focus.” But here’s the problem: if you haven’t established a “short-term presence,” how can you even talk about long-term sustainability?
Today, most Web3 conferences are no longer primarily venues for projects to connect with investors or showcase technical solutions. Instead, they’ve become large-scale KOL parties and rotating dinner circuits. The real skill lies in who can bring KOLs to the event, keep them happy, and get them active on Twitter and in group chats. Some projects fly back and forth specifically for these events—not to gain media exposure or reach developers, but to meet key KOLs in person, host dinners, offer small allocations, share stories, and take photos together.
These KOLs are far from lone wolves anymore. Don’t be fooled by those who post daily technical analyses on X or actively chat in Telegram groups—behind many of them are entire teams managing content creation, curating materials, and scheduling tweet timing. They have teams negotiating project partnerships, others writing tweets, and still others reviewing private sale agreements—clearly divided roles, operating efficiently to make money.
KOLs themselves have developed a tiered system. Top-tier KOLs won’t touch obscure projects; they only promote those backed by shared investors or strong industry consensus. Mid-tier KOLs maintain visibility by jumping on trends, translating English content, and summarizing sector overviews. Bottom-tier KOLs compete on cost, group buys, and airdrop links, focusing purely on user volume. Project teams fully understand this hierarchy and allocate token allocations accordingly: top-tier get the biggest cuts, mid-tier get broader distribution, and bottom-tier are used as peripheral tools for viral community spread.
Project teams have long adapted to this playbook. Some with limited budgets form KOL advisory boards, offering titles, tokens, and requiring regular posts. Others tier their private sale allocations—top KOLs get one round, mid-tier another, and retail airdrops mimic the IDO hype cycle. The more sophisticated ones start by warming up the Chinese-speaking community, then use that momentum to break into English-speaking channels, packaging "local success" as "global virality."
From a communications strategy perspective, this Web3 approach is fundamentally different from the "corporate PR" model in traditional startups.
Traditional projects run PR campaigns to build long-term recognition and trust—press releases, interviews, roadshows, industry partnerships—the logic being "product first, persona later." In contrast, Web3 communication resembles a carefully choreographed drama: faster-paced, riskier, and aiming not for "people knowing who you are," but for "people believing you're about to explode."
Most Web3 projects are selling narratives. If a project fails to trend within three days or grow its Telegram group by 3,000 members, it’s already considered a failed cold start. Web3 users don’t invest because they "understand"—they rush in because they "fear missing out." And project teams? They constantly amplify this "missing out equals loss" expectation.
You might dislike this game—but you can't opt out.
Yet, hype is a double-edged sword. While KOL-driven attention can launch a project, backlash can strike fast and fierce. Redlin Law once observed a classic case: a new Web3 project with mediocre tech, whose only highlight was securing several highly active Chinese Twitter accounts as advisors—even branding itself as the "first Chinese-language xx project."
Prior to launch, it flooded the space with content marketing—"dream team," "strongest lineup," AMAs scheduled throughout February, even peak-time Twitter Spaces. But one week after launch, the product was dead, GitHub nearly empty, code quality questioned. Seeing the tide turn, KOLs who had promoted it quickly deleted tweets and distanced themselves. The narrative shifted from "project scammed us" to "advisors fled," reputation collapsed, and the project died overnight.
More realistically, it's also becoming harder to be a KOL. On one hand, they need exposure to maintain traffic and income; on the other, they increasingly fear getting burned or blamed. That’s why many now preface tweets with disclaimers: "Not financial advice. I did not participate in funding nor hold tokens of this project."
For China-based Web3 project teams seriously considering leveraging KOLs to gain traction and push narratives to market, here are a few practical suggestions:
First, leverage KOLs effectively—you don’t need the most expensive ones, but you absolutely need some KOL support. Even if you're purely "tech-focused," you still need someone to translate your whitepaper and explain your work in a way that spreads easily. Many projects think they’re not doing marketing, but in reality, they’ve just lost control of online narrative power.
Second, plan your communication rhythm and supporting resources in advance. Today’s KOL content cycles are highly industrialized—a single tweet, an AMA, a meme image—all are scripted. If your project hasn’t launched yet and you’re waiting for organic promotion, chances are your buzz will fizzle out at 200 people in a Telegram group and a few "meh" comments. Conversely, if you engage the right people early, run a proper pre-launch campaign, and time your moves well, even a small project can achieve breakout visibility.
Third, carefully manage your pace and expectations—don’t "go all-in at launch, end with an empty stage." Too many projects try to create instant hype with top-tier lineups, only to go silent three weeks later, delay product delivery, face community backlash, and trigger a full-blown reversal. A more realistic approach for most projects is to focus on "fewer but higher-quality communications," keeping every step within the bounds of what you can actually deliver. Never try to fulfill fantasy with reality.
Fourth, practice "cross-community operations" as much as possible. Domestic teams often adopt a one-size-fits-all approach—posting identical content on Telegram and X, running Chinese and English communities at the same pace—which dilutes effectiveness. Different communities speak different languages and care about different things: Chinese audiences focus on team background and connections; English audiences prioritize investors and tokenomics. If you don’t tailor your messaging, you’ll fail to resonate with either.
Finally, and most importantly: while Web3 is undoubtedly an attention-driven game, truly enduring projects can never rely solely on marketing to survive. Without a usable product, clear business model, stable team, and execution capability, no matter how high the traffic lifts you, the fall will be equally devastating.
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