Perspective on the current status of crypto KOL marketing: 5,000 followers = a ticket to influence?

Author: Ming & hoidya

Compiled by: TechFlow

Report download address:

https://docsend.com/view/byz6c353vwhyn5b6

summary

Key opinion leaders (KOLs) are important marketing channels, especially in the cryptocurrency field, where they serve as a bridge between projects and users. To better understand the role of KOLs in cryptocurrency marketing, we analyzed cryptocurrency-related Twitter/X accounts and their "links in profiles" to identify the threshold for being considered an influential account and explore the preferences of crypto trading platforms in KOL marketing.

The first indicator of becoming a KOL is having a "certified account". Among crypto users, the percentage of certified accounts grows rapidly as the number of followers increases, and stabilizes after reaching 1,000 followers. For certified accounts, the percentage of links in the profile rises sharply after reaching 5,000 followers, and does not level off until it exceeds 50,000 followers. This suggests that 1,000 followers is a critical threshold for users to consider using their certified status to increase their influence, while 5,000 followers seems to be the node at which they are recognized as influential.

The most common commercial links in crypto user profiles are trading platforms, concentrated between centralized exchanges (CEXs) and decentralized platforms. Among centralized exchanges, the largest by trading volume also dominate profile links. These links are almost evenly divided between tokenized links (representing direct value-sharing arrangements with KOLs) and ordinary links (indicating long-term KOL cooperation or voluntary participation). Tokenized links on centralized exchanges are particularly prevalent among Chinese KOLs, preferring users with more than 20,000 followers and accounts that have existed for more than 3 years.

For decentralized exchanges, links in user profiles are concentrated in fast-rising projects, reflecting their need to capture the minds of on-chain users to promote growth. These links are fully tokenized and mainly appear in English KOLs. Unlike centralized exchanges, decentralized platforms have no specific preferences for the number of followers or account existence time, beyond the scope of natural distribution, showing a more permissionless and inclusive KOL marketing approach.

introduction

Influencers or key opinion leaders (KOLs) play a vital role in consumer-facing marketing, with the market value reaching $21 billion in 2023. In an industry like cryptocurrency that is driven by mind share, KOLs’ influence is even more significant as they are able to shape public perception and drive engagement.

To quantitatively analyze KOL usage in crypto, we studied 250,000 Twitter/X accounts active in the crypto ecosystem. Our study specifically focused on verified accounts that included links to crypto exchanges in their bios. Verified accounts require a paid subscription that unlocks features such as reply boosters, long-form posts, and creator hubs, which increase their marketing potential. Verification can therefore be seen as a sign of accounts that seek greater influence and aspire to become KOLs.

Business network links in Twitter/X profiles, often referred to as “links in profile,” show the association of an account. In this analysis, we focused on links to exchanges, such as those that include “binance.com” or “hyperliquid.xyz,” to refine our sample. Exchanges were the most common businesses in profile links across our sample user group, often using tokenized links to attribute new user conversions to a specific source. This makes it an effective filter for identifying accounts that have participated in marketing campaigns.

In addition to focusing on trading platforms, we also studied the typical characteristics of Twitter accounts that participated in these marketing campaigns. Key characteristics analyzed included the number of followers, account language, and account age. Together, these metrics provide a meaningful overview of how crypto businesses use KOLs for marketing.

Verified Accounts: Crypto vs. Non-crypto

The Importance of Verified Accounts in Crypto

*: Crypto account data comes from @UseUniversalX and @aveai_info

**: Ordinary account data comes from @nytimes

Note: Certification means the user has a Premium or Premium+ account, which costs between $80 and $160 per year.

• The proportion of verified accounts among cryptocurrency-related Twitter/X accounts is higher than that of the general Twitter/X user base, which highlights the importance of verified accounts in the crypto field.
• Verified accounts with less than 1,000 followers represent a growth phase and serve as a key turning point. Once the number of followers exceeds 1,000, the proportion of verified accounts stabilizes and slowly grows from 30% to 50%. This may indicate that reaching 1,000 followers is the threshold for considering paid subscriptions to further expand online influence, marking a key milestone toward becoming a KOL.
• Verified accounts are more likely to include a link in their bio than regular accounts. The percentage of verified accounts grows rapidly once the number of followers exceeds 5,000, suggesting that links in bios create more value for verified accounts with more than 5,000 followers.

Crypto Verified Accounts: Demographics

Demographics of verified accounts (% of total accounts, total = 131,387)

Focusing further on verified accounts in the crypto space, we collected a sample of more than 130,000 accounts. Of these, 80% of the accounts have fewer than 5,000 followers, and 4% have more than 50,000 followers. In terms of language, 80% of the accounts use English and 7% use Chinese. The age distribution of the accounts is relatively even, with 11% registered within the past year and 43% existing for more than five years.

The remainder of this report will focus on these crypto-authenticated accounts.

Crypto Exchange Marketing: Links in Your Profile

Common commercial domain names appearing in crypto-verified account profiles (percentage of all accounts)

• Nine of the ten most popular commercial links are crypto exchanges, with decentralized exchange Axiom.trade topping the list. It’s important to note that commercial links do not include self-promotional links, such as Instagram or OpenSea.
• CEXs (centralized exchanges) and decentralized platforms split the top nine spots, with OKX and Binance taking second and third place, respectively. This observation suggests that crypto trading platforms are the most concentrated group in utilizing links in profiles as a form of marketing.

Crypto Exchange Marketing: Links in Your Profile

Trading platform link overview (number of accounts)

Among centralized exchanges (CEXs), OKX, Binance, and Bybit lead in frequency and have almost an equal number of tokenized links.

• In addition to tokenized links, most CEXs also present links in the form of ordinary links. This is consistent with the background of large CEXs hiring KOLs as brand ambassadors, and they do not measure their contributions through new users converted by tokenized links.
• Among decentralized platforms, Axiom, BullX, and GMGN lead in frequency, and almost all decentralized platform links appear in tokenized form.

Overview of tokenized links by exchange (% of all accounts)

• If we consider the previously mentioned crypto exchanges as the entire universe of tokenized link marketing, then Axiom, BullX, and OKX are the top three participating platforms, together accounting for about 50% of the overall share.

Tokenization link of the exchange platform (number of accounts)

• Decentralized platforms place more importance on tokenized links than centralized exchanges (CEX). This difference may stem from the permissionless nature of decentralized platform links, while CEX tokenized links require authorization.
• CEX mainly targets Chinese accounts, especially those with higher follower counts and longer account ages. In contrast, decentralized platforms prioritize English accounts, most of which exist in smaller accounts.

Tokenized exchange linked verified accounts by fan base (% of verified accounts)

Tokenized exchange linked verified accounts by category (% of verified accounts)

• Most accounts have fewer than 10,000 followers, and only a small fraction use tokenized links.
• The percentage of accounts using tokenized links increases with the number of followers, reaching a peak at the 20,000-29,999 level, suggesting that 20,000 followers may be the threshold for verified accounts to be considered valuable for tokenized link marketing.
• Tokenized links were particularly prevalent among Chinese accounts, especially those with 50,000 followers or more. In contrast, English accounts rarely actively adopted tokenized links, regardless of their follower count.
• A key difference between CEXs and decentralized platforms is their methodology: decentralized platform links are largely indifferent to the number of followers an account has, while CEX links are more common among accounts with higher follower counts.

Crypto Exchange Marketing: General Links

Common trading platform link authentication accounts by fan group (number and percentage of authentication accounts)

Common trading platform-linked verified accounts by category (% of verified accounts)

• Verified accounts with 30,000 to 39,999 followers are most likely to use regular exchange links, which set a higher bar than tokenized links. This distinction may stem from the fact that regular links prioritize branding over direct user acquisition and require greater manual coordination by exchanges, thus focusing on accounts with large numbers of followers.
• Regarding the distinction between language usage and trading platforms, the patterns closely align with tokenized links: plain links are primarily associated with centralized exchanges, and show a clear emphasis on Chinese accounts.

in conclusion

The role of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) in the crypto space is unquestionable, acting as an important bridge between projects and their user base. KOLs help users gain a deeper understanding of projects, discover new opportunities, and assist projects in effectively reaching their target communities. The “link in profile” phenomenon and self-service tokenized links together embody the dynamic interaction between these three parties.

This study aims to provide an overview of the KOL marketing strategies adopted by prominent crypto companies and projects on Twitter/X. Large centralized exchanges lead the “link in profile” space, using tokenized and non-tokenized models almost equally. Meanwhile, decentralized platforms, in their early stages, can share a fair share with top centralized exchanges, relying exclusively on tokenized links. For Twitter/X accounts, having 20,000 followers seems to be the threshold for participating in the “link in profile” ecosystem.

As “InfoFi” emerges in the crypto marketing space, we expect to develop more innovative ways to align the interests of projects, users, and KOLs. Additionally, innovations in social marketing can transcend the crypto space and potentially gain mainstream attention in the broader digital marketing space.

Methodology

We randomly selected 103,264 followers from @cz_binance and @binance as representative of crypto accounts, and 60,594 followers from @nytimes were selected for comparison.

Platforms: Crypto verified accounts were sampled by scanning Twitter/X accounts of 15 trading platforms, including Binance, OKX, Bitget, Bybit, Gate.io, MEXC, Crypto.com, UniversalX, Pepeboost, GMGN, Ave.ai, Photon, and BullX. The sampling size was capped at 50,000 per account, so a total of 131,387 verified accounts were captured.

Language: An account was categorized as English if all text in its bio and username was in English. The rest were categorized as Chinese or Other based on the non-English language used.

Tokenized links are identified by keywords in the link: Binance uses “join” or “register”, OKX uses “join”, Bybit uses “invite” or “partner”, Bitget uses “partner”, MEXC uses “invite”, Gate.io uses “signup”, Photon uses “@”, BullX uses “/p/”, Crypto.com, Axiom, and Hyperliquid use “@”, UniversalX uses “invite”, and Ave.ai, Pepeboost, and GMGN.AI use “ref”.