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Crypto marketing is undergoing a structural shift as products move from speculative trading tools toward everyday financial interfaces, according to Bitget Wallet CMO Jamie Elkaleh.
Speaking in a recent conversation with Outset PR founder Mike Ermolaev, he argued that the industry is moving away from the early model of marketing built around explaining blockchain mechanics and toward a model where real-world utility becomes the primary growth driver.
This means sustainable adoption increasingly depends on reducing product friction and making technology invisible to the user. Features such as gas abstraction, social logins, and simplified onboarding allow crypto products to function more like familiar fintech apps.
“If users don’t need to understand the infrastructure behind the product, the marketing has done its job,” Elkaleh emphasized.
Overall, he describes the shift toward utility as the biggest change in user behavior. In earlier cycles, market stress usually led to inactivity, but Elkaleh said the dynamic played out differently this time.
“Stablecoin balances and on-chain yield activity remained resilient even during price corrections. This reflects a more sophisticated user base focused on capital efficiency rather than short-term trading.”
More Insights From the Conversation: Marketing Narratives Differ Between Asia and the West
Elkaleh also highlighted that crypto marketing narratives vary significantly depending on the region. Bitget Wallet operates globally, with particularly strong traction in Asian markets, where adoption patterns differ from those seen in the West.
In Asia, crypto usage is closely tied to everyday financial activity such as remittances, cross-border transfers, and stablecoin payments. As a result, marketing in the region tends to communicate accessibility, speed, and mobile-first infrastructure.
“In 2025, Asia recorded a 69% year-over-year increase in on-chain value,” Elkaleh noted, pointing to what he described as strong grassroots usage.
By contrast, Western markets place greater focus on regulatory clarity and institutional trust. Communication strategies often highlight compliance frameworks, governance standards, and transparency measures as users pay closer attention to stability and risk management.
Data-Driven Credibility in Crypto Media
Another topic Elkaleh touched on concerns how crypto companies interact with media outlets. As the industry matures, journalists increasingly expect verifiable data rather than narrative claims.
Bitget Wallet’s media strategy focuses on producing insights that reporters can directly reference when covering broader market trends.
“We publish research reports based on on-chain analytics and user behavior trends, which allows reporters to reference measurable insights.”
Stories supported by clear data points — such as growth dynamics, transaction volume, or adoption metrics — tend to travel further across the media ecosystem. They are cited by analysts, republished by other outlets, and discussed across different formats including video and podcasts.
Crypto Markets Now Move with Macro Capital
In an environment where thousands of press releases circulate each month, Elkaleh noted that data-backed insights determine whether an announcement gains traction or fades into the background.
He also acknowledged a broader shift in how crypto markets react to information. In earlier cycles, news stories could move prices almost instantly. Today, that mechanism appears significantly weaker.
Per Elkaleh, cryptocurrencies have evolved into a “macro-sensitive asset class,” where, at a multi-trillion-dollar scale, individual headlines inevitably lose much of their ability to influence price discovery. As institutional capital enters the market through vehicles such as Bitcoin ETFs, capital allocation decisions are becoming more closely tied to macroeconomic conditions rather than short-lived industry narratives.
What This Shift Means for Crypto Marketing
Taken together, Elkaleh’s observations point to a broader transition in how crypto companies approach growth and communication. As the industry matures, marketing strategies appear to be shifting toward measurable utility, regional relevance, and data-backed credibility.
The full conversation with Jamie Elkaleh, including a deeper discussion of crypto wallet adoption and the evolving role of marketing in the sector, is available on the Outset PR blog.
