From crypto projects to digital asset companies: It’s time to level up web3 comms | Opinion

“GM, GM. You’re “Just a Crypto Bro”, right?” someone shouted across the hall at Paris Blockchain Week. He’d seen one of my podcast episodes and added with a grin: “Thanks for interviewing the founder of one of my favourite projects.” I smiled. A little flashback of how I came up with my ‘degen’ username hit me. A reminder of where the crypto industry was six years ago, and how far we’ve all come. And then the question hung there: Am I still “Just a Crypto Bro”?

On the surface, it was a simple inquiry, but it carried more weight than he likely intended. It wasn’t just about my username; it was about my identity as a web3 professional. I was wearing a collared shirt, a gilet jacket, and smart casual trousers—not exactly the web3 uniform—yet I have never felt so connected to the industry. 

A lot of my friends pursuing a career within the industry have run into the same challenge: What does it even mean to look, act, or dress like a web3 native nowadays?

Lately, my team and I have been helping founders “clean up” their image. Repositioning their teams from crypto projects to digital asset companies, and dressing up blockchain tech in a language regulators, institutions, and mainstream users can understand. 

From cryptocurrencies to digital assets 

Crypto has grown up, or at least, it’s started to. What once felt like a chaotic, permissionless playground of speculation and hype is now evolving into something more structured.

Politicians, bankers, and institutions no longer refer to our beloved Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) as cryptocurrencies; they tend to call them digital assets. A term that will define the next phase of our industry. If we have to be precise, the term digital assets means anything created and stored digitally that has or provides value. They include a wide range of items from photos, documents, and videos to cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets. However, my point isn’t about definitions or linguistics—it’s about observing how the industry is steadily gaining legitimacy, and the phrasing institutions prefer.

This isn’t just a rebrand, it’s a reflection of how the ecosystem is evolving. Regulators are starting to define the rules more clearly. The United States regulations—House’s STABLE Act and the Senate’s GENIUS Act—would create a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers in the U.S., including licensing requirements, reserve standards, AML obligations, and consumer protections. It’s inevitable that other nations will follow, and in the next few years, we should have clearer regulations across the board.

Coinbase just became the first crypto-native company listed on the S&P 500. BlackRock launched a Bitcoin ETF. Politicians are openly debating crypto policy in public forums, not just in subcommittees behind closed doors.

Crypto isn’t fringe anymore. It’s entering the mainstream ecosystem imperfectly, but undeniably.

The convergence of crypto and mainstream communications

The crypto industry is evolving—and it’s evolving fast. Tokenomics are changing to provide real value for token holders. Regulation is evolving. Retail investors are sceptical of projects that don’t have their whitepapers in order, and don’t invest based on hype anymore; they invest in Hype because of the real-world problem the project is aiming to solve (couldn’t keep this joke for myself).

However, crypto communications haven’t evolved to match the broader transformation happening across the industry.

Many projects are short-termist, completely ignoring yearly or even quarterly communications strategies. They focus on KOLs to pump their tokens in short bursts instead of positioning their founders and companies for long-term success. PR is often treated as a pay-to-play hustle, not a brand-building tool. 

The corporate world, meanwhile, has spent decades sharpening its comms-planning, structuring, and executing with intention. Meanwhile, crypto has mostly lived in a parallel universe. We started discussing projects on internet forums, moved to Telegram and Discord private communities, and more recently, the industry has heavily relied on crypto X influencers. For years, we operated in a self-contained bubble: chaotic, jargon-heavy, proudly irreverent. The industry created its own obscure language, memes, and unwritten rules. We laughed at being called degens and ‘Retardio’ and wrote milady at the end of random posts. It was part of the culture.

It worked, for a while. But if this industry wants to be taken seriously beyond its echo chamber, its communications need to grow up. Because what a company posts on social media, its tone of voice, its choice of words, visual appearance, even what its founders wear on stage—all of these feed into your reputation. Because it’s not just about what you build. It’s about how you tell your story.

Right now, too many crypto projects still speak in code. Meanwhile, mainstream journalists only show up when something blows up, right, Bybit? That needs to change. We need to move from memes to messaging. From chaos to clarity.

This doesn’t mean we abandon the culture. Crypto can, and should, keep its edge. But it does mean learning how to speak to different audiences such as investors, regulators, developers, and everyday users. The space is fragmented, and we no longer speak to a homogenous group of web3 natives, hence the messaging needs to adapt.

The sad truth is that many modern comms agencies serving the industry are part of the problem. Web3-native agencies understand the tech inside-out, but often miss the strategic rigor, structure, and polish that institutional clients and audiences expect. Conversely, traditional PR firms, used to boardrooms and blue chips, stumble on basic concepts like tokenomics or L2s.

The result is obvious: misaligned messaging. Missed opportunities. And an industry that struggles to explain itself to the world. It’s time to fix that. Not just for credibility, but for mainstream adoption.

All good, but how? 

The role of a communications team in crypto is simple. We should act as the bridge between founders and the world. Developers focus on code. Users care about what that code can do for them. Good comms translate complexity into clarity. It helps people understand why a project matters, how it works, and why they should trust it. Sounds easy, but in practice, it’s hard to do well.

Start with structure. Plan your communications quarterly, not reactively. Have a clear narrative arc: what are you announcing, why now, and who needs to hear it? Build a rhythm around your releases, media outreach, and community updates.

Consistency builds credibility. You stop sounding like a hype machine and start sounding like a real company. If this industry wants to be taken seriously by institutions, regulators, or the general public, the messaging has to evolve. It can’t be just about hype and inside jokes anymore. Projects that learn to communicate clearly with mainstream audiences will be the ones that last.

If crypto is ever going to break out of its echo chamber, comms professionals have a key role to play. It’s not enough to land coverage in the usual web3-native publications, important as those are for the community. For projects aiming to reach mainstream audiences, getting visibility in broader business, tech, and culture media is crucial. That means crafting narratives that resonate beyond tokenomics and roadmaps. We need stories that speak to real-world impact, user experience, and long-term value.

We need to avoid jargon. Most users aren’t interested in how your bridging works, what consensus mechanism your blockchain has, or any other technical detail. What they care about is simple: does this make their life more convenient and more affordable?

Finally, push your founders to think about positioning early. Who are they speaking to: developers, degens, regulators, institutions? If you’re targeting mainstream users or serious investors, your public tone matters. You can’t lead with “GM” and show up in a hoodie if you’re trying to win trust from Wall Street. Attire, tone of voice, vocabulary, all of it sends a signal. Make sure it’s the right one.

Ivan Zhelev

Ivan Zhelevis not a BTC maxi anymore, but has still kept his laser eyes. He joined the web3 space, aiming for 100x returns, but stayed for the tech. Ivan hasn’t held more than £5,000 in fiat at any time over the past few years. He books flights and hotels with crypto and uses it to pay for his daily expenses as well. He began his traditional communications career working with the communications teams at Dropbox and Vodafone, and more recently, covered markets for Cointelegraph. Ivan combines deep industry knowledge with sharp strategic insight. He is currently a podcast host at Blockster and has spoken on stage at industry events like Zebu Live and Crypto AI Conference. This year, he will be speaking and hosting panels at the Balkans and CryptoConf3rence, as well as hosting the ETH Dublin.