Web3 is booming. Startups have raised over $6 billion, and crypto’s total market cap recently passed $4 trillion. Yet many traditional agencies remain hesitant to work with crypto-native clients.
To unpack this paradox, we spoke with Yaroslav Kalynychenko, Chief Marketing Officer at GENERIS, a marketing agency deeply rooted in the Web3 ecosystem. With years of experience bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3, Yaroslav shares candid insights about the challenges, stereotypes, and opportunities shaping the future of crypto marketing.
Web3 Perception and Challenges
1. Why are so many traditional agencies still afraid to work with crypto-native clients?
Traditional businesses are often hesitant to engage with the crypto space because many already hold a fixed perception: crypto is a scam, a gray area, and so on. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Initially, the industry’s image was shaped negatively, and now, creating a positive one takes significantly more effort — it requires convincing people to change their minds. If we had to explain it from scratch, it would be easier. But now, crypto carries a stigma, much like the old stereotype about Chinese products being “cheap and low quality,” even though that hasn’t been true for a long time.
Regulation also plays a big role. For years, crypto wasn’t regulated in the US, Europe, or anywhere else. Only now are the first governing bodies emerging to oversee and regulate the industry. This will establish clear rules of engagement. Until then, no one truly knows who they’re partnering with. You might have a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that manages digital assets, but if something goes wrong, where do you turn? For traditional businesses that value bureaucracy, paperwork, and strict processes, this uncertainty is a significant risk.
2. A lot of agencies think Web3 projects are all hype or just short-term — what’s the reality you’re seeing on the inside?
This is simply the reality of a young, unformed market. Crypto should be viewed like the startup ecosystem. In Silicon Valley, VCs invest in ten startups, and only one or two succeed. Web3 projects follow a similar pattern, except here, the investors aren’t just VCs.
For example, in Web2, a startup might secure funding, hit its targets, get more funding, and scale, or launch an MVP that doesn’t work and then shut down. Was that a “scam” worth $200k, $300k, $400k? Or was it just a failed attempt? In Web3, it’s the same. A project issues tokens and invites early-stage investment, promising future growth. But in reality, 8 or 9 out of 10 projects will close within a short timeframe. In crypto, people tend to label that as a scam.
So why isn’t Silicon Valley VC investing considered a scam? Because retail investors aren’t involved. If we remove all the behind-the-scenes details and just look at the structure, VC funds operate knowing that one win will cover nine losses. In crypto, you can invest in ten projects yourself, but nine will still fail. Does that make them scammers? I don’t think so. Viewed through the startup lens, these are attempts, not scams. Without attempts, there’s no success. Yes, there’s good and bad in the industry, but the key is how we choose to interpret it.
3. Do you think crypto-native clients are misunderstood, or are they just harder to serve if you’re not immersed in the culture?
It’s hard to work with the Web3 audience without deep context. When I moved from Web2 to Web3, it took me about six months to really understand how things worked. Each technology and blockchain has its own audience, its own community, and its own influencers — some legitimate, some scammers. It’s like the Wild West: few rules, lots of freedom, and no standard “best practices.”
In Web2, processes are relatively settled. In Web3, the market isn’t fully formed, and marketing in this market is even less defined. That means no one truly knows the “right” way to do things yet, and every project has to invent its own approach.
Missed Opportunities for Traditional Agencies
4. What are those agencies actually missing by sitting this market out?
They’re missing the opportunity to enter an industry that could grow many times beyond its current size. Right now, they could secure a position at an early stage, when much is still undefined, and lay down their “brick” in the foundation — one that could serve their interests for years to come.
5. Will traditional agencies eventually catch up, or are we watching the rise of a completely new breed of Web3-native creative firms?
We’re building a new category. Just like iGaming has its own rules, institutions, and conferences, Web3 marketing is developing its own ecosystem. But since Web3 as an industry is younger, its marketing hasn’t reached the same scale.
You can’t just “switch” from Web2 to Web3 overnight, doing a supermarket ad today and a crypto campaign tomorrow. Some Web2 agencies work with crypto, but usually only on naming or branding. In design, some exchanges do hire large agencies for big design systems, but those agencies often lack the deeper industry context.
This is why we’re shaping a new Web3 marketing sector — one with its own tools, metrics, and internal culture. You can borrow individual tools like SEO or ad campaigns, but they need to be adapted for ad bans and the market’s realities. Even quality research is hard to do without fully immersing in the space and understanding the audience’s hidden motivations.
Comparing Web2 and Web3 Teams
6. You work directly with crypto-native teams every day — what makes them different to collaborate with compared to Web2 clients or startups?
For the most part, Web3 teams aren’t very different from Web2 teams. Many actually came from Web2 because it was easier to secure angel investments in Web3 at the start.
The main difference is speed, both in operations and decision-making. The market is still taking shape, so teams constantly need to find new opportunities and growth paths. They’re often more agile and experimental, testing multiple strategies in parallel rather than committing to one long-term roadmap.
Another distinction is the global nature of Web3 teams. Unlike many Web2 startups, which are often clustered in hubs like Silicon Valley or London, Web3 teams are decentralized by default, with contributors spread across time zones. This requires new ways of collaborating, from async workflows to community-driven decision-making via DAOs.
7. What do crypto-native clients do especially well when working with agencies?
They’re often strong at selling and pitching their projects. Many are goal-driven, think far ahead, and believe blockchain will change the world. At the same time, there are quite a few speculators among them.
Another strength is their ability to build and nurture communities. Web3 projects usually have engaged users on platforms like Discord, Telegram, or X. Unlike traditional marketing funnels, Web3 growth often comes from community participation, where users double as evangelists, testers, and investors.
Crypto-native founders also tend to be early adopters of new marketing tools. They understand the importance of influencer partnerships, token incentives, and gamified engagement models, areas where traditional clients are more conservative.
8. What’s the biggest mistake traditional agencies make when they try to “go Web3”?
There are two main ones.
First — speed. Web2 agencies can afford to spend months on research or branding, but Web3 is far more dynamic and changes quickly. Here, it’s often better to do something imperfectly than not do it at all, because the market may shift direction overnight.
Second — understanding the market’s specifics. While the tools may be similar, the way they’re used is different. In Web3, we deal with ad restrictions, gray areas, and evolving rules. Web2 agencies aren’t used to operating under those constraints, so they often try to apply the same slow, structured methods, which don’t work here.
Inside the Web3 Market
9. Can you share an example of a campaign or client collaboration where being crypto-native made all the difference?
One example is our NDA client with a Telegram Tap-to-Earn game. Players could buy boosters with crypto to earn more points, outperform competitors, climb higher in the rankings, and increase their chances of getting a larger token drop before the token’s listing.
What made this project stand out was how deeply integrated it was with Web3 culture. The campaign didn’t just promote a game; it tapped into the community’s existing habits of farming airdrops, competing in leaderboards, and speculating on token launches.
Because the agency team was crypto-native, we could anticipate user motivations and design mechanics that felt authentic rather than forced. A traditional Web2 agency might have marketed the game as just another app, missing the bigger cultural drivers that made it successful: gamified token rewards, scarcity mechanics, and viral sharing inside Telegram groups.
10. If a crypto founder wants agency support but doesn’t want to lose speed or authenticity, what’s your honest advice?
Right now, the Web3 marketing space is splitting into niches: some agencies focus on tools, others on influencers, others on strategy and branding. New ones appear, old ones close. It’s a fast-moving market.
Everything now revolves around people. Finding strong partners who can “go into the wild” with you is critical. Personal relationships and trusted recommendations are the real keys to the market.
The industry is full of fake numbers, inflated metrics, and staged activity. That makes finding a team that actually delivers incredibly hard. Often, marketing agencies in Web3 are asked to create the appearance of traction — fake followers, likes, comments, guerrilla accounts — because that’s how the market measures trust today.
So the key is people. If a founder partners with us, they don’t lose speed — they often gain it, because our expertise covers the entire market, and it’s backed by the collective strength of the team, not just a single person.
The future of marketing is already shifting. Just as Web2 created its own ecosystem, Web3 is building one too — fast, chaotic, but full of opportunity.
For traditional agencies, the choice is clear: adapt and immerse in the culture, or risk being left behind. For founders, the path forward lies in choosing the right partners who understand the nuances of crypto-native audiences.
And as Yaroslav reminds us, “without attempts, there’s no success”.
