Marketing a Web3 Wallet from Private to $19m IDO
How We Aligned Community, Influencers, and Ecosystems for a Record-Breaking IDO
Introduction
I joined the project to lead their Marketing at a precise inflection point. The wallet had cleared its pre-seed round and the team had already navigated transitions across multiple chains, which gave the product technical credibility. What it lacked was a marketing layer with any structure behind it. The path forward required three things in sequence: establish a public presence, build momentum toward a token launch, and execute a successful IDO.
None of those three worked without the groundwork that preceded them.
Identifying the Gaps
Four problems surfaced on closer engagement. Community engagement existed but had no framework. Communication with supporters ran reactively rather than on a managed cadence. The influencer relationships the project had accumulated were uncoordinated, with no clear plan for who would activate at which stage. Chain ecosystem partnerships, which would be the primary driver of user acquisition, had not been mapped.
Each gap fed into the others. A community without structure would blunt any launch. An uncoordinated influencer network would mean activation at the wrong moment. Without chain partnerships, we would be launching to our own audience only.
Building the Foundation
The first decision was moving the community from Telegram to Discord. Telegram at scale functions as a broadcast channel. Discord allowed us to build a structured support environment and run a tester programme that gave early users a defined role inside the project rather than a passive one.
I introduced weekly community check-ins as the primary touchpoint: regular updates, open Q&A, and a consistent cadence that replaced reactive announcements. I also opened a direct channel with the QA lead so that community-reported bugs reached the right person and feedback loops closed within a visible timeframe.
Web3 communities extend trust to teams that follow through. The check-in structure made follow-through auditable week by week.
Sequencing the Influencer Network
I contacted every influencer associated with the project individually and built an activation plan from those conversations: which influencers would endorse the project, in what format, and at which stage of the launch. The plan gave each relationship a specific role rather than keeping the network as an undifferentiated pool.
I then segmented the network regionally. Each market received messaging aligned to its phase of the launch calendar, which meant activation landed when it was most relevant to each audience rather than as a single global push timed to the wrong moment for half the network.
Acquisition and Strategic Alliances
An early beta campaign on the project’s existing chain brought in the first 15,000 users. Early adopters received exclusive NFTs, which created a tangible reward for participation and gave the community a stake in the product’s early identity before the token existed.
With a user base in place, the focus shifted to a major Layer 1 ecosystem the project planned to launch on next. I built alliances with established projects on that chain, giving their users a reason to adopt the wallet. An AMA with the chain’s founder brought both communities into a shared conversation, reinforced the partnership, and extended the reach of the project beyond its existing base.
Token Launch and IDO Execution
The token announcement ran through a structured PR campaign built around the project’s positioning and competitive differentiation. Alongside the public campaign, I worked with investors to produce detailed analysis on the token itself, giving serious buyers the material to evaluate it rather than relying on sentiment alone.
AMAs and influencer-led giveaways held momentum between announcement and IDO. The aim was sustained attention across weeks, not a single spike that dissipated before the event opened.
The IDO structure was designed to drive product engagement. I segmented allocation slots by degen score and made the wallet the mechanism for accessing those allocations. Users had a direct incentive to open and use the product in order to participate in the raise.
Results
The IDO was among the first on the platform and set its highest allocation rate on record, a figure that remained unmatched for an extended period. The project surpassed its funding target by 60%. The token held its price for a month following the close and reached an all-time high.
Conclusion
The record came from the sequence, not any single activation. Community infrastructure had to exist before influencer coordination made sense. The influencer network had to be mapped before the beta campaign could direct its traffic. The beta campaign had to build a user base before chain partnerships carried weight with a new audience.
The IDO was the last step of a build that started with a Discord migration and a weekly check-in. Each phase created the conditions the next one needed to work.