Transforming Crypto Marketing: Predictions for 2026 and Beyond

By: crypto insight|2025/11/27 09:30:04

Key Takeaways

The rapid evolution in crypto marketing strategies echoes the fast-paced advancements in the crypto industry itself, demanding a shift from mere attention-grabbing to true conversion metrics.
The industry’s regulatory landscape has seen transformations, with more than 319 new stablecoins emerging, and regulatory conditions becoming more favorable in the U.S. post-GENIUS Act, prompting a surge in institutional investments.
2024 marked a pivot from founder-led brand narratives to performance-driven metrics like user acquisition and retention, emphasizing KPIs that focus on growth and sustainability.
Emerging platforms and AI technologies are diversifying the crypto content ecosystem, with an increase in dedicated content creators enhancing reach beyond traditional Crypto Twitter audiences.
AI is playing an increasingly integral role in crypto marketing, influencing SEO strategies and ad placements, and heralding new methodologies for engaging audiences.

WEEX Crypto News, 2025-11-27 09:03:44

A Year of Transformation: From EthDenver to g(t)m con

In the swirling vortex of the crypto world, where trends and strategies are as volatile as the currencies themselves, the past year has been transformative. The span from the EthDenver conference in early 2025 to the recent g(t)m con 1 event unveiled a landscape of unprecedented growth and change within the industry. Over this period, over 319 stablecoins have surfaced, marking a stark increase in diversity and innovation in financial products designed for crypto markets (Data: @DefiLlama).

This boom is amplified by significant regulatory shifts, notably in the United States, where the introduction of the GENIUS Act and the election of a crypto-friendly president have eased regulatory pressures. Consequently, mainstream finance is increasingly adopting blockchain, tokenization, and ETFs, while giants such as Wall Street institutions make their foray into cryptocurrencies via stablecoins.

During the same window, the sheer volume of newly issued tokens exploded by over 27%, reaching a staggering total of 5.67 billion, reflecting a vibrant yet crowded marketplace (Data: @Dune Analytics). Furthermore, October 2025 alone witnessed an impressive $375 million in crypto payment card transactions tracked across visible blockchains. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have hit new transaction volume records, with digital banking and mobile fintech apps proliferating rapidly—most notably Aave’s game-changing mobile platform.

Evolution in Crypto Marketing: From 2024 to 2025

November 2024’s g(t)m con event in Bangkok was a vivid snapshot of then-current crypto marketing trends, featuring founder-led brand storytelling, influencer-driven engagements, and creative strategies like mascot marketing and airdrop campaigns. Hype and visibility were paramount, with strategies favoring brand mindshare over tangible growth metrics. However, the intervening months have seen a tactical shift. The latest g(t)m con has revealed a market now prioritizing performance marketing and user-centric KPIs above superficial engagement markers.

The Decline of Mindshare Dominance

The crypto space has historically prioritized generating buzz and brand mindshare, relying heavily on Crypto Twitter as the pulse of public sentiment. Yet, the past year highlighted the limitations of these approaches. High-visibility token generation events suffered from lackluster follow-through when price performances failed to meet expectations, underscoring the need for a shift from mere speculation to solid acquisition and retention strategies.

As financial ecosystems mature, older hype-driven marketing methods are yielding to measures that cultivate lasting user value and sustainable revenue models. Importantly, this realignment directs attention towards application-driven ecosystems and user experience enhancements. Established fintech and blockchain infrastructures are now channeling efforts toward legitimacy and mass adoption, beckoning a future where blockchain-based solutions extend far beyond niche user groups into mainstream financial services.

Hot & Cold: An Overview of Current Trends

Navigating the fluid terrain of crypto marketing trends, one observes a dynamic array of hot and cold paradigms. A curated list by insiders and analysts paints a revealing picture of the industry’s progression into 2025.

Recruiting New Age Crypto Marketers

As firms mature, the need for specialized marketing talent is intensifying. Current recruitment trends indicate a demand for marketing leaders adept at navigating crypto landscapes, contrasting the erstwhile generalist “jack of all trades.” Companies are increasingly seeking marketers with a hybrid prowess in both Web2 and crypto dimensions, reflecting an evolving job market where previous crypto failures flood the market with seasoned talent.

Renaissance of Performance-Driven Marketing

Echoing broader industry shifts, the prestige of performance marketing is resurging. Real-time analytics, combined with sophisticated tracking, have empowered marketers to craft targeted campaigns that blend paid and organic channels. From liquidity quests and precision KOL marketing to micro-targeted wallet advertisements, the emphasis leans heavily on quantifiable results. Emerging tools like Spindl, GoHypelab, and Turtledotxyz are exemplars of this transformative pivot.

The Platform Shift: Content Beyond Crypto Twitter

Amidst a landscape saturated with content, diversification is key. Gone are the days when Crypto Twitter hogged the limelight. Today, platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn are experiencing a meteoric rise. The strategic use of videoblogging, cinematic storytelling, and influencer collaborations distinguish brands vying for genuine engagement. Roberta Stark, @Scroll_ZKP’s co-founder, utilized LinkedIn to achieve millions of views and followers, demonstrating the platform’s potent reach.

Events and Experiences: A Paradigm of Exclusivity

This year marks a move toward intimate and exclusive event experiences. With a sea of options, event organizers now seek to create compelling narratives around limited-access gatherings and high-quality branded merchandise. Events that offer a blend of sophistication—Metamask’s exclusive helicopter rides at EthCC Cannes—and immersive digital experiences stand out, offering not just participation, but scarcity-driven allure.

Incentivization Redefined: From Airdrops to Token Auctions

Incentive structures within the crypto realm are undergoing a redefinition. Airdrops, once the hallmark of token promotion, now vie with auction-like sales where the privilege to purchase is the reward itself. Such systems mirror traditional loyalty schemes, underscoring exclusivity in offering discounts or staking incentives across multiple protocols. As the industry continues this shift, understanding these nuanced, privilege-based incentives becomes crucial for engaging an informed constituency.

The Role of AI in Crypto Marketing

Artificial Intelligence stands at the vanguard of changing crypto marketing dynamics. Its integration spans operational efficiencies and strategic enhancements. Hype has aggressively pursued AI SEO advancements, ensuring visibility within AI-curated content ecosystems—a strategy that will only grow as OpenAI’s imminent advertising platform matures. The intersection of AI and marketing heralds a future ripe with automation, personalization, and targeted engagement.

Staying Ahead in the Fast-Moving Crypto Market

In a realm where trends fade as swiftly as they appear, staying ahead demands more than vigilance—it requires foresight. Marketers are advised to think beyond the present gateway, drawing inspiration from beyond the crypto sphere and adhering to first principles thinking. This nimbleness, paired with creative tactical pivots, will determine the brands that not only survive but thrive in this challenging yet exhilarating space.

How Can WEEX Leverage the Current Trends?

For platforms like WEEX, which operate at the intersection of user experience and robust technology solutions, leveraging these trends involves a multipronged approach:

Brand Alignment: Establish a strong brand presence by embracing content diversification strategies, utilizing new platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn to reach wider and younger audiences while maintaining authenticity.

Smart Incentives: Shift from airdrop dependency to exclusive token privilege sales, similar to how luxury brands tout limited edition releases.

AI Utilization: Invest in AI-driven SEO strategies to ensure that your data commands presence across AI-powered ecosystems, thus capturing emerging lenses of consumer attention.

User Engagement: Curate exclusive events and experiences that speak to the WEEX community values, fostering a sense of belonging and superior customer experience.

Strategic Hiring: Bolster your team with marketing leaders who bridge Web2 expertise with crypto insights, enriching the brand with diverse experiences and strategies.

Conclusion

As the crypto landscape continues its relentless evolution, marketing strategies within it must adapt and innovate at a parallel pace. With the insights gained from pivotal conferences and the observable shifts in industry focus, crypto marketing in 2026 will likely resemble a blend of refined strategies, driven by data and an acute awareness of what truly constitutes value. By embracing change and foresight, marketers can effectively navigate the tumultuous waters of the crypto realm, ensuring relevance and resonance with ever-evolving audience expectations.

FAQs

What are the key changes in crypto marketing from 2024 to 2025?

The primary change is the shift from hype-driven techniques that focus on brand mindshare to performance-driven strategies emphasizing user acquisition, engagement, and retention.

How has regulation impacted the crypto industry in recent times?

The introduction of favorable regulations like the GENIUS Act and the appointment of a crypto-friendly US president have relaxed previously stringent rules, fostering greater institutional participation in crypto markets.

Why is platform diversification important for crypto marketing?

Platform diversification allows brands to reach different audiences, accessing platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn helps tap into new demographics and enhances brand reach beyond traditional Twitter-centric marketing.

How is AI being integrated into crypto marketing?

AI is enhancing crypto marketing by improving content visibility through AI-driven SEO, facilitating personalized ad placements, and creating more efficient marketing strategies overall.

How can WEEX utilize these trends to boost its market presence?

By aligning brand strategies with current trends such as platform diversification, smart incentive structures, and AI utilization, WEEX can effectively enhance its user engagement and expand its market influence.

AI trading is already core market infrastructure, but regulators still treat it as a tool — responsibility always stays with the humans and platforms behind it. The biggest risk in 2025 is not rogue algorithms, but mass-adopted AI strategies that move markets in sync and blur the line between tools and unlicensed advice. The next phase of AI trading is defined by accountability and transparency, not performance — compliance is now a survival requirement, not a constraint.

Coinbase Joins Prediction Market, AAVE Governance Dispute - What's the Overseas Crypto Community Talking About Today?

Publication Date: December 23, 2025Author: BlockBeats Editorial Team

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has shown strong momentum across multiple dimensions. The mainstream discussion has focused on Coinbase's official entry into the prediction market through the acquisition of The Clearing Company, as well as the intense controversy within the AAVE community regarding token incentives and governance rights.

In terms of ecosystem development, Solana has introduced the innovative Kora fee layer aimed at reducing user transaction costs; meanwhile, the Perp DEX competition has intensified, with the showdown between Hyperliquid and Lighter sparking widespread community discussion on the future of decentralized derivatives.

I. Mainstream Topics

1. Coinbase Acquires The Clearing Company, Officially Entering Prediction Market

This week, Coinbase announced the acquisition of The Clearing Company, marking another significant move to deepen its presence in this field after last week's announcement of launching a prediction market on its platform.

The Clearing Company's founder, Toni Gemayel, and the team will join Coinbase to jointly drive the development of the prediction market business.

Coinbase's Product Lead, Shan Aggarwal, stated that the growth of the prediction market is still in its early stages and predicts that 2026 will be the breakout year for this field.

The community has reacted positively to this, generally believing that Coinbase's entry will bring significant traffic and compliance advantages to the prediction market. However, this has also sparked discussions about the industry's competitive landscape.

Jai Bhavnani, Founder of Rivalry, commented that for startups, if their product model proves to be successful, industry giants like Coinbase have ample reason to replicate it.

This serves as a reminder to all entrepreneurs in the crypto space that they must build significant moats to withstand competition pressure from these giants.

2. Kalshi Launches Kalshi Research and Integrates BSC Network

Regulated prediction market platform Kalshi launched its research arm, Kalshi Research, this week, aimed at opening its internal data to the academic community and researchers to facilitate exploration of prediction market-related topics.

Its inaugural research report highlights Kalshi's outperformance in predicting inflation compared to Wall Street's traditional models. Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara commented that the power of prediction markets lies in the valuable data they generate, and it is now time to better utilize this data.

Meanwhile, Kalshi announced its support for the BNB Chain (BSC), allowing users to deposit and withdraw BNB and USDT via the BSC network.

This move is seen as a significant step for Kalshi to open its platform to a broader crypto user base, aiming to unlock access to the world's largest prediction market. Furthermore, Kalshi also revealed plans to host the first Prediction Market Summit in 2026 to further drive industry engagement and development.

3. AAVE Token Incentive Controversy Persists as Founders and Whales Increase Holdings Against the Market Trend

The AAVE community recently engaged in heated debates around an Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP) titled "AAVE Tokenomics Alignment Phase One - Ownership Governance," aiming to transfer ownership and control of the Aave brand from Aave Labs to Aave DAO.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov publicly stated his intention to vote against the proposal, believing it oversimplifies the complex legal and operational structure, potentially slowing down the development process of core products like Aave V4.

The community's reaction was polarized. Some criticized Stani for adopting a "double standard" in governance and questioned whether his team had siphoned off protocol revenue, while others supported his cautious stance, arguing that significant governance changes require more thorough discussion.

This controversy highlights the tension between the ideal of DAO governance in DeFi projects and the actual power held by core development teams.

Despite governance disputes putting pressure on the AAVE token price, on-chain data shows that Stani Kulechov himself has purchased millions of dollars' worth of AAVE in the past few hours.

Simultaneously, a whale address, 0xDDC4, which had been quiet for 6 months, once again spent 500 ETH (approximately $1.53 million) to purchase 9,629 AAVE tokens. Data indicates that this whale has accumulated nearly 40,000 AAVE over the past year but is currently in an unrealized loss position.

The founder and whale's increased holdings during market volatility were interpreted by some investors as a confidence signal in AAVE's long-term value.

4. Top Articles: DeFi Curators and Ethereum Annual Summary

In this week's top article, Morpho Labs' "Curator Explained" detailed the role of "curators" in DeFi.

The article likened curators to asset managers in traditional finance, who design, deploy, and manage on-chain vaults, providing users with a one-click diversified investment portfolio.

Unlike traditional fund managers, DeFi curators execute strategies automatically through non-custodial smart contracts, allowing users to maintain full control of their assets. The article offered a new perspective on the specialization and risk management in the DeFi space.

Another widely circulated article, "Ethereum 2025: From Experiment to Global Infrastructure," provided a comprehensive summary of Ethereum's development over the past year. The article noted that 2025 is a crucial year for Ethereum's transition from an experimental project to global financial infrastructure. Through the Pectra and Fusaka hard forks, Ethereum achieved significant reductions in account abstraction and transaction costs.

Furthermore, the SEC's clarification of Ethereum's "non-securities" nature and the launch of tokenized funds on the Ethereum mainnet by traditional financial giants like JPMorgan marked Ethereum's gaining recognition from mainstream institutions. The article suggested that whether it is the continued growth of DeFi, the thriving L2 ecosystem, or the integration with the AI field, Ethereum's vision as the "world computer" is gradually becoming a reality.

II. Mainstream Ecosystem Updates

1. Solana: Launches Kora Fee Layer and propAMM Data Research

The Solana Foundation engineering team released a fee layer solution called Kora this week.

Kora is a fee relayer and signatory node designed to provide the Solana ecosystem with a more flexible transaction fee payment method. Through Kora, users will be able to achieve gas-free transactions or choose to pay network fees using any stablecoin or SPL token. This innovation is seen as an important step in lowering the barrier of entry for new users and improving Solana network's availability.

Additionally, a deep research report on propAMM (proactive market maker) sparked community interest. The report's data analysis of propAMMs on Solana like HumidiFi indicated that Solana has achieved, or even surpassed, the level of transaction execution quality in traditional finance (TradFi) markets.

For example, on the SOL-USDC trading pair, HumidiFi is able to provide a highly competitive spread for large trades (0.4-1.6 bps), which is already better than the trading slippage of some mid-cap stocks in traditional markets.

Research suggests that propAMM is making the vision of the "Internet Capital Market" a reality, with Solana emerging as the prime venue for all of this to happen.

2. Perp DEX: Hyperliquid vs. Lighter Competition Intensifies

The competition in the perpetual contract DEX (Perp DEX) space is becoming increasingly heated.

In its latest official article, Hyperliquid has positioned its emerging competitor, Lighter, alongside centralized exchanges like Binance, referring to it as a platform utilizing a centralized sequencer. Hyperliquid emphasizes its transparency advantage of being "fully on-chain, operated by a validator network, and with no hidden state."

The community widely interprets this as Hyperliquid declaring "war" on Lighter. The technical differences between the two platforms have also become a focal point of discussion: Hyperliquid focuses on ultimate on-chain transparency, while Lighter emphasizes achieving "verifiable execution" through zero-knowledge proofs to provide users with a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB)-like trading experience.

This battle over the future direction of decentralized derivatives exchanges is expected to peak in 2026.

Meanwhile, discussions about Lighter's trading fees have surfaced. Some users have pointed out that Lighter charged as much as 81 basis points (0.81%) for a $2 million USD/JPY forex trade, far exceeding the near-zero spreads of traditional forex brokers.

Some argue that Lighter does not follow a B-book model that bets against market makers, instead anchoring its prices to the TradFi market, and the high fees may be related to the current liquidity or market maker balance incentives. Providing a more competitive spread for real-world assets (RWA) in the highly volatile crypto market is a key issue Lighter will need to address in the future.

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