Marketing shouldn’t be the scapegoat in crypto

Opinion by: Samantha Yap, Founder and CEO of YAP Global.

The crypto bull market is in full swing and so is the familiar cycle: Bitcoin breaks record highs, retail investors rush in and new projects scramble to launch. Projects often make an all-too-common mistake in this frenzy: using marketing as a Band-Aid for unfinished products, then blaming it when things go wrong. This tension between building value and capturing momentum has been a key topic at industry events like the recent g(t)m conference in Bangkok—but the challenge extends far beyond any single discussion.

This rush-to-market mentality leaves a graveyard of failed projects in its wake. Of the 24,000+ cryptocurrencies listed on CoinGecko since 2014, 14,000 have failed. Critics point fingers at “marketing hype” for these failures. According to DappRadar’s analysis, however, the real killers are a lack of product-market fit, poor financial management and technical flaws. 

Building trust through transparency

Think about what makes you trust a crypto project. There’s the technical foundation — the code, the team, the tokenomics. How they present themselves, however, is equally important. Do they explain technical concepts in accessible terms? Are they consistent in their community updates? Do they address concerns transparently rather than dismissing them? These signals reveal much about a project’s commitment to the long term. 

It’s not enough just to attract users. You also have to prove trustworthy enough to deserve them. The most successful projects understand this intuitively and focus on advancing their projects, which can be seen as a technical form of marketing. Consider Uniswap’s rise to prominence. While other DEXs focused on technical features alone, Uniswap upgraded each version to solve its users’ problems — from expanding token pairs in v2 to introducing flexible fee tiers in v3 that cater to different risk appetites. They clearly understood what their community needed and delivered improvements that mattered.

Education helps the industry mature

The most effective crypto marketing today prioritizes education over hype. This shift reflects a deeper understanding of what builds trust in the industry. When Coinbase releases its State of Crypto reports, they’re helping users understand fundamental developments like institutional adoption and market infrastructure changes. 

The most effective marketers are translators who break down complex blockchain concepts into simple language for all levels of understanding. After all, an informed user who engages with the protocol is worth far more than one who chases short-term returns. 

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As the industry matures, projects realize that sustainable growth comes from having users who understand what they’re investing in and why it matters. 

Marketing and PR is a good filtering tool 

The reality of crypto media is it is ruthlessly efficient: Hundreds of pitches flood journalists’ inboxes weekly, and only the strongest and best stories survive. This crowded landscape demands evidence of authentic accomplishments and progress — if your project isn’t ready for scrutiny, marketing won’t save you. It’ll only accelerate your downfall. Every announcement becomes a stress test of your project’s fundamentals.

Many founders fail to understand that this intense filtering process benefits the entire ecosystem. Media and market attention expose weak projects early, preventing more extensive failures. Projects don’t fail because of marketing. Projects fail because marketing exposes what’s already broken — shaky technology, unsustainable tokenomics or half-baked business models. Think of it as crypto’s natural selection process: Those who survive are legitimately ready for mass adoption.

The way forward

What’s becoming apparent in 2024 is that marketing shouldn’t be crypto’s scapegoat but should be used sparingly and strategically as a potent tool for building legitimacy. Bitcoin’s surge has brought retail interest back into the space and unprecedented attention back to crypto — a time for marketing to shine. Effective marketing serves as both a filter and an enabler, helping users distinguish serious projects from fleeting ones while making complex technology accessible to newcomers. Do it wrong and crypto projects will use it as a scapegoat for building hype over underdeveloped, unready tech — creating a bad name for crypto marketers.

This natural selection process is precisely what a maturing industry needs. For crypto to reach its next billion users, we need more transparency, not ambiguity; education, no hype, consistent communication and no sensationalized virality. Marketing, when done responsibly, delivers these things. In an industry built on the promise of transparency and decentralization, that’s not just good business, it’s essential for long-term success. 

Samantha Yap is the Founder and CEO of YAP Global an international PR and communications consultancy that helps crypto and Web3 organizations tell their stories. With a background as an international journalist and producer, Samantha founded YAP Global in 2018 to bridge the gap between the emerging world of blockchain technology and mainstream media.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.