Bitget Wallet’s CMO Jamie Elkaleh lays out a new marketing playbook for wallets as they evolve from trading tools into full-fledged financial interfaces.
Speaking to Outset PR founder Mike Ermolaev for the agency’s Web3 communications series, Elkaleh argued that the era of growth driven by airdrops and point programs is ending. Those tactics can spike attention, he said, but they rarely produce lasting users. Instead, sustainable adoption now comes from shrinking product friction and making onboarding seamless.
“When users can transact without managing seed phrases or holding native gas tokens, adoption becomes more sustainable,” Elkaleh said. In other words: in a utility-first market, product design is effectively the most important marketing.
Regional marketing differences: Asia versus the West
Elkaleh highlighted stark geographic contrasts in what users want and how teams should communicate:
- Asia: Adoption is rooted in everyday financial use cases — remittances, cross-border transfers and stablecoin payments. Messaging focuses on speed, accessibility and practical value. Elkaleh points to strong grassroots demand: “In 2025, the region recorded a 69% year-over-year increase in on-chain value. That reflects strong grassroots usage.”
- Western markets: Here, regulatory clarity and institutional trust dominate user expectations. Emerging frameworks such as MiCA in Europe and new U.S. stablecoin rules mean users prioritize compliance, proof of reserves and risk transparency.
Across regions, the unifying requirement is simple: products must work reliably in real-world financial contexts.
Data-driven PR for a more skeptical media
At Bitget Wallet’s scale, Elkaleh said generic commentary no longer moves the needle with journalists. Reporters want verifiable data that explains real market activity. Bitget addresses that by publishing research built on on-chain analytics and user behavior — material that journalists can cite.
That evidence-based approach also shifts how PR success is measured. Top-priority signals include tier-one media mentions, analyst citations and share of voice in strategic narratives. Secondary indicators are organic brand mentions, backlink authority, inbound media inquiries and invitations to podcasts or research collaborations. The true inflection point, Elkaleh says, is when external analysts begin citing the company’s data independently.
Crypto news no longer drives markets the way it used to
Elkaleh observed a broader market evolution: crypto headlines don’t swing prices as dramatically as prior cycles. “Crypto has matured into a macro-sensitive asset class,” he said. As sector valuations scaled to the multi-trillion level, macro capital flows started to matter more than single-news events. He points to 2025 institutional activity as proof: roughly $44 billion flowed into Bitcoin ETFs that year, making institutional capital a structural market force.
A shift from narrative-driven hype to functional adoption
Taken together, the conversation points to an industry pivoting from narrative-led growth toward functional, everyday use. Wallets are increasingly used for payments, transfers and yield strategies — places where reliability matters more than technical explanations. That reality changes the logic of marketing: the goal is to eliminate complexity so users don’t need to understand the underlying infrastructure.
“If users don’t need to understand the infrastructure behind the product, the marketing has done its job,” Elkaleh concluded.
The full Outset PR talk covers user acquisition, media strategy and market dynamics in more detail, but these highlights map the practical marketing playbook for wallets competing in the next crypto phase: fewer gimmicks, more product-led utility, and proof-backed communications.
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