Web3 and crypto marketing, grounded in twelve years of experience
I have worked in crypto since 2014: first as the founder of CoinJournal, then as a founder, consultant and in-house marketing lead at companies including Bitmain, eBay, Improbable and a MiCA-authorised digital-asset firm. CryptoKaiju, the NFT business I built and ran myself, sold more than $250,000.
Today I help crypto, Web3 and blockchain companies with positioning, search, content, community, paid acquisition and marketing strategy. The fundamentals are the same as good marketing anywhere else. The difference is understanding the market well enough to apply them properly.
Trusted to lead their marketing
What changes when the product is crypto
The fundamentals are familiar. The operating environment is not.
Good crypto marketing still starts with the same questions: who is the product for, why should they care, where do they look for information and what would make them trust you?
The difference is the context around those questions. Crypto and Web3 products can involve technical audiences, financial regulation, restricted advertising channels, community led discovery and purchase journeys that continue away from the company website.
That changes how positioning, distribution and measurement need to be handled, but it does not replace the fundamentals. The objective is still to understand the audience, communicate something useful and connect marketing activity to a meaningful outcome.
Crypto audiences often understand the category in considerable depth. Messaging needs to be precise enough to survive scrutiny, particularly when the product involves financial risk, infrastructure or unfamiliar technology.
Google, Meta and other platforms apply additional rules to many crypto products, with requirements varying by product category and geography. Channel selection and compliance need to be considered from the outset.
Research, discussion and recommendation often happen across X, Telegram, Discord, industry publications and private conversations. Community and distribution can therefore form part of the buying journey rather than sit outside it.
The route from first interaction to conversion can span multiple channels, devices and, in some cases, on-chain activity. Measurement needs to reflect that journey rather than rely on a single final touchpoint.
Started a cryptocurrency news publication and ran it for six years, building the writing team, setting editorial direction, interviewing people across the industry and handling advertiser relationships. It gave me an early view of how crypto audiences discover information, evaluate new products and decide which sources to trust.
Paid media, content, PR and social for the world’s largest manufacturer of mining hardware, and for Blockrocket (a Manchester blockchain consultancy) and its clients. Read the case study
The first project to link NFTs with physical collectibles, taken from proof of concept to a profitable business with over $250,000 in sales. Covered by Forbes, and partnered with the NBA, The Sandbox and Dapper Labs. I sourced the manufacturers, ran the production, built the front end and did the marketing.
Led a team of five across paid and organic for KnownOrigin, eBay’s NFT marketplace, and doubled as product manager for the marketplace squad. Rebuilt the measurement, moved the team off last-click attribution, and reversed a decline in a collapsing market. Read the case study
Marketing and communications for Improbable and its spun-out Web3 venture MSquared, including go-to-market for activations with the BBC, Major League Baseball and Yuga Labs. Read the case study
Rather than publish another performance whitepaper, we built a fully on-chain MMO and invited the world to break it. 70,000+ players and 250 million on-chain transactions. Read the case study
Currently running marketing for a MiCA-authorised digital-asset firm in institutional lending and regulated crypto vaults, with Legal and Compliance in the approval path. Named in the CV rather than here.
They said
“Oliver played an instrumental role in successfully marketing KnownOrigin and putting us on the map from the day we launched. He has a strong work ethic and commitment to success.”
SEO · Paid · Localisation
Making the world’s largest miner manufacturer visible in English
Dominant in Asia and close to invisible in English search. As a freelance lead I did the technical repair, localised twelve thousand words and rebuilt the paid search account.
Read the case studyOrganic traffic across the US and EU, over six months
Strategy · Social · SEO · Content · Analytics
Leading marketing for eBay’s NFT marketplace through the 2022 crash
eBay bought KnownOrigin as the NFT market fell 57%. Leading a team of five, I rebuilt the measurement, moved the team off last-click attribution, and put the creators at the centre of the marketing.
Read the case studySite traffic over six months, against a falling market
Strategy · Community · Content
Proving a blockchain’s performance claim by breaking it in public
The brief was to prove a performance claim. Instead of a whitepaper, we built a fully on-chain voxel MMO and invited the public to stress-test the network with it. I led the marketing of the launch.
Read the case studyPlayers onboarded during the testnet phase
Crypto marketing depends on what you are marketing
The category matters less than the audience, product and buying decision.
A protocol, an exchange and an institutional financial product may all sit under the crypto marketing label, but they do not need the same plan. The right channel mix follows from the product, the audience and the decision you are trying to influence.
That is why I treat Web3 marketing as a sector specialism rather than a separate set of tactics. Strategy comes first, then the channels that fit the job.
Developer adoption, ecosystem growth, technical content, search, partnerships and evidence that the product works at the level its users care about.
Trust, regulation, acquisition economics, conversion, retention and clear communication of what the product does and who it is for.
Longer buying cycles, credible research, earned media, sales enablement and messaging that can stand up to legal, compliance and investment scrutiny.
Product adoption, community, creator or partner distribution, retention and giving people a reason to keep using the product after the initial launch.
What the work involves
The same five disciplines as anywhere else, applied to a market with its own constraints.
Most engagements use two or three of these together. If you are not sure which, start a conversation. Working that out is the first thing I would do anyway.
I work out who you’re selling to and what to say to them, then decide which channels to run first and what to measure.
I fix what stops search engines reading a technical site, then build rankings for the terms your buyers search.
Articles, newsletters and ghostwritten posts that explain a complex product to the people buying it.
I run your X, LinkedIn, Discord and Telegram channels and the communities on them.
Search and social advertising for crypto and financial products, within the ad-policy rules those categories carry, tracked to the sale.
Questions before an engagement
Something not covered here? Ask me directly.
What is Web3 marketing?
Marketing for companies whose products involve blockchains, including protocols, exchanges, wallets, marketplaces, infrastructure and the businesses building on top of them. The core disciplines are familiar: positioning, search, content, community and paid acquisition. What changes is the operating environment, including technical audiences, restrictions on paid channels, conversations that happen away from the company website and purchase journeys that can include on-chain activity.
How is crypto marketing different from other marketing?
The fundamentals are the same, but the context is different. Audiences are often technically literate and sceptical, so claims need evidence. Paid channels apply additional rules to many crypto products. Community can play a meaningful role in discovery and evaluation. The purchase journey can also be unusually fragmented: on the KnownOrigin marketplace, 47% of purchases happened 12 to 30 days after the first site visit, which made simple last-click reporting a poor guide to what was influencing demand.
How should I judge a Web3 marketing proposal?
Start by asking what the work is intended to change. A good proposal should connect its activity to a commercial or marketing outcome, explain how that outcome will be measured, give you a sensible timeframe for judging progress and make clear what would cause the approach to change. Deliverables matter, but they should support an outcome rather than become the outcome themselves.
Do you only work with crypto companies?
No. I also work across fintech and B2B technology. That crossover is useful in both directions: regulated financial services brings rigour around claims, compliance and long buying journeys, while crypto has taught me how to work in markets where products, channels and audience behaviour can change unusually quickly.
Can you run paid ads for a crypto product?
Yes, for products and markets that meet the relevant platform requirements. Google and Meta permit certain crypto categories with certification and geographic limits, so campaign planning needs to account for product type, geography, approvals and account setup before media is launched.
What about NFTs? Are they still worth doing?
It depends on the role the asset plays in the product. The NFT engagements written up on this site worked because the digital asset supported a wider objective, including introducing eBay sneaker collectors to digital ownership and giving KnownOrigin artists a reason to bring their own audiences. I would start with the user need and the commercial objective, then decide whether a token or collectible genuinely helps meet it.
How much does this cost?
An audit with a roadmap is a fixed fee, typically three to four weeks. Ongoing work is a monthly retainer with no lock-in. I will give you a number once I understand the scope, and if I do not think I would earn it I will tell you that instead.