Should Early-Stage DeFi Projects Still Invest in Community Marketing?

amanda smith · 2025-11-09T12:28:49+00:00

I’m advising an early-stage DeFi project in India with under $2M TVL. The founders are debating whether to hire a community marketer or just focus on dev and audits until mainnet. Their worry: marketing without a live product looks “empty,” but waiting too long might kill early momentum. In a market where post-airdrop fatigue is real, does community marketing still drive meaningful traction for small DeFi teams? Or should we wait until the protocol has real liquidity depth before investing in Discord, quests, and ambassadors? What kind of KPIs actually prove ROI in such an early phase?

Should Early-Stage DeFi Projects Still Invest in Community Marketing?

amanda smith
@DecentralizedDev

Updated: Nov 11, 2025

Views: 76

I’m advising an early-stage DeFi project in India with under $2M TVL. The founders are debating whether to hire a community marketer or just focus on dev and audits until mainnet.
Their worry: marketing without a live product looks “empty,” but waiting too long might kill early momentum. In a market where post-airdrop fatigue is real, does community marketing still drive meaningful traction for small DeFi teams?
Or should we wait until the protocol has real liquidity depth before investing in Discord, quests, and ambassadors? What kind of KPIs actually prove ROI in such an early phase?

2

Replies

Howdy guest!

Dear guest, you must be logged-in to participate on ArtOfBlockChain. We would love to have you as a member of our community. Consider creating an account or login.

Replies

Abdil Hamid

@ForensicBlockSmith • 1mo

Pre-product marketing still matters but the content format has changed. Instead of giveaways, focus on transparent build-in-public storytelling. Our team used Notion public roadmaps and Dune dashboards to post weekly liquidity test data.

That alone brought in 600 organic followers on Lens and 400 testnet users in 2 months. The ROI wasn’t clicks—it was credibility.

ChainPenLilly

@ChainPenLilly • 4w

I’d argue early community building is the cheapest form of risk mitigation. When we delayed marketing until after mainnet at my last DeFi gig, onboarding friction was brutal—0.7% wallet retention after first swap.

Later, Galxe quests and explainer threads helped triple that. Don’t wait for audits to finish; build trust loops now. Just define small KPIs like “active Discord feedback” instead of “user growth.”