Coinbound

The projects winning right now understand that tangibility is what drives those outcomes. Consistent presence, authentic partnerships, a team that shows their face. That’s what gets your guests coming to the next party and inviting their friends to come, too. That’s how you build real community.

Because here’s the thing everyone knows but nobody says out loud: web3 is ultimately about creating value and real returns. Your community, content and marketing need to connect back to outcomes people can see and feel.

Some crypto marketing shifts we’ve been noticing. Everyone wants to know what works. Here’s some notable findings ⬇️

coinbound has never had investors. but every month, i write myself an investor update anyway. I'll usually cover things like: - challenges were facing - how we think they should be addressed - major recent wins - the main "bets" that we're making (and, importantly, the “why” behind them) - brief financial status recap It felt weird at first but i kept doing it and now i have years worth of these things sitting in my inbox. the thing i didn’t expect is how bad my instincts were on certain calls. there are months where i was super confident about something that completely flopped, and totally dismissive of something that ended up mattering a lot. you just don’t see that clearly when you’re in it. i also forget how small we were. like, the numbers from 2019 are almost embarrassing to look at now. but they’re also kind of motivating in a weird way. no deep lesson here. i just think it’s a useful thing to do if you run a company and don’t have a board or investors keeping you honest. at minimum it’s a good excuse to actually look at your metrics once a month instead of vibing your way through the year.

here’s something we don’t talk about enough: @coinbound turns away more than 95% of the brands that reach out to us. not because we’re trying to be exclusive or because we think we’re too good for anyone. it’s because we refuse to take on a client we can’t absolutely crush it for. i’ve seen what happens when agencies say yes to everyone. they spread thin, results suffer, and the clients that actually deserved great work get watered-down effort. we’d rather have a shorter roster of wins than a long list of “we tried our best.” every time we onboard someone, our reputation is on the line. in crypto, that reputation travels fast (in both directions) so when we evaluate an inbound lead, we’re asking: 1- do we have the right team 2- the right connections 3- the right strategy to genuinely move the needle for this project? (Or are they at least receptive enough to the strategy we are proposing?) if the answer isn’t a confident yes, we pass. it’s one of the hardest parts of running the agency. turning down revenue is never easy but it’s also one of the things i’m most proud of. the clients we do work with know we chose them just as much as they chose us. that changes the dynamic completely. it becomes a partnership, not a transaction. selectivity is a reciprocal commitment to the people who trust you with their growth.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ More agencies need to work this way

its finally time. i'm breaking down the 5 biggest lessons I wish someone had told me before I started a crypto agency. If you're building an agency or working in Web3 marketing — this one's for you.

In 2026 I’m on a mission to get a lot more interesting people on the pod Shoot me a dm and my team will see if we can bring you on. But here are the rules: - Gotta be a founder or exec in crypto - gotta have something interesting to talk about that cant be found elsewhere

@TySmithHQ These roots hold strong

coinbound has now survived four crypto bear markets. the first one i genuinely thought the show was over. i remember watching in terror as inbound dried up and wondering if i'd built something real or just gotten lucky on timing. it was brutal. the second one was still scary, but it felt familiar. like i'd seen this movie before. i knew there was probably an ending where things came back, i just didn't know how long it would take. this most recent one? barely noticed it. inbound slows down, we adjust, we keep building. the show very much goes on. i read a book recently called "Life Lessons from the Ocean" (its a picture book) that put words to something i'd been experiencing without fully understanding it. it talked about a species of seaweed that grows and shrinks with the seasons, and how that's actually the secret to its survival. when conditions get stormy, seaweed that's grown too large gets ripped out of the ground and dies. so it evolved to get bigger in the summer and smaller in the stormy winters. it doesnt look at shrinking as bad, growing as good. they are both part of the cycle of survival. that's the only playbook that works in crypto. not infinite growth mode year round. controlled expansion, honest contraction when needed, and enough roots to hold when things get rough. the businesses that die in bear markets usually don't die because of the bear market. they die because they scaled like the storm was never coming and didnt give themselves the freedom to cut back when the stormy winter came.

absolutely no one: crypto marketing teams:

@RJC_CryptoAxiS @TySmithHQ

When Coinbound was smaller, people didn’t take us seriously. Not in a mean way, more like a “cool… good luck with that” way. And honestly… fair. Because in the beginning you’re basically just a person with a laptop and a belief that you can figure it out. But the longer you survive, the more the belief turns into proof. That’s why I’ll always bet on founders who can keep going when nobody’s clapping yet.

@only1mrwhite of course!

@coinbound Thanks for sharing

Most crypto user acquisition optimizes for traffic. This campaign optimized for intent. In this case study, we break down how Coinbound helped ClearJournal, a crypto trading SaaS, achieve $9.29 CPA using paid search, community, and brand. coinbound.io/case-studies/c…

The biggest flex in agency life isn’t landing a big client. It’s keeping them.

I legit think 99% of crypto companies are running their Telegrams wrong. It should feel like a group chat but bigger.

Rate of pivoting is such an important metric for founders. Too often = lacks commitment to see things through Too infrequent /never = can’t adapt to the market Both destroy growth and investor confidence.