Memento Research tracked 118 token launches in 2025. By the end of the year, 100 of them were trading below their launch valuation. The median token had lost 71% of its fully diluted value.
A second study, by Arrakis, looked at more than 120 launches and found something more useful than the failure rate. Of the tokens that fell during their first week, only 9.4% ever recovered. Market timing barely mattered. What happened in the first seven days was close to final.
That changes what you should want from a marketing agency. Reach and impressions are easy to buy. The real job is narrower: make sure the token gets through week one without a wave of selling. There are seven common ways that week goes wrong, and each one calls for a different kind of agency. This guide takes the seven problems in turn and names the agency best equipped for each.
- The Seven Problems and Who Solves Them
- Problem 1: The Crowd Is Made of Airdrop Hunters
- Problem 2: The Press Covers You for One Afternoon
- Problem 3: The Token Itself Gives People No Reason to Hold
- Problem 4: Nobody With Real Money Was Lined Up
- Problem 5: People Search Your Token and Find Scammers
- Problem 6: The Project Looks Like Every Other Launch
- Problem 7: The Budget Ran Out Before Launch Week
- Find Your Weakest Point
- Two Agencies Are Often Better Than One
- What No Marketing Agency Can Fix
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Seven Problems and Who Solves Them
| What Goes Wrong in Week One | Agency | Entry Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Airdrop hunters sell on day one | Lunar Strategy | $10,000 |
| Press coverage lasts one afternoon | MarketAcross | $10,000 to $25,000 |
| The token gives no reason to hold | TokenMinds | $5,000 |
| No larger buyers were lined up | Crowdcreate | $10,000 |
| Search results are full of scammers | ICODA | $10,000 |
| The project looks like every other launch | Hype | $50,000 |
| The budget ran out before launch week | FINPR | Under $1,000 |
Each agency was matched to a problem on three grounds: its record with tokens and token sales, a clear specialism that fits the problem, and at least five years in business, which means it has worked through a falling market as well as a rising one.
Problem 1: The Crowd Is Made of Airdrop Hunters
Around 80% of airdrop recipients sell within 24 hours of receiving their tokens. If most of your community joined for the free allocation, your launch-day chart is a queue of people waiting to exit. The contrast between two well-known launches shows how much this matters. LayerZero filtered out roughly 800,000 farming addresses before its token went live and fell 16% in its first month. zkSync did far less filtering and fell 39%.
Filtering wallets is a technical job. Building a crowd that wants to hold is a marketing job, and it takes months. It means attracting people who use the product, giving them reasons to talk to each other, and rewarding activity that bots find hard to fake. The healthiest crypto Telegram groups have this quality: members answer each other’s questions before a moderator has to.
The Agency for This: Lunar Strategy
Lunar Strategy does nothing but Web3, and its reputation rests on community and X growth in the months before a token exists. The Lisbon agency has run this work for Cardano, Polkadot, ICP and Supra, where the audience is developers and long-term holders, not giveaway hunters. One client recorded more than 30 million impressions from a single engagement, and another saw users grow by over 300%. In August 2025 it bought Calib3r, which added more KOL capacity. Clients rate it 4.9 from 23 reviews on Clutch.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lunarstrategy.com | 2019 | Lisbon, Portugal | 10 to 49 | Minimum project $10,000; most engagements $10,000 to $49,999 |
Pros
- Web3 is its only business
- Proven on ecosystems with serious, long-term communities
- Mid-range fees for its client list
Cons
- A small team that takes on a limited number of launches
- PR is a minor part of what it does
- Thinner coverage of Asian communities
Problem 2: The Press Covers You for One Afternoon
Most launches send one press release on the day of the token generation event. It gets picked up by a handful of crypto news sites, sits on their homepages for a few hours and is gone by the evening. Then days two through seven, the days when early buyers are deciding whether to hold, pass with nothing new to read.
A launch needs a string of stories, not one. The audit result, the funding round, the exchange listing, the first usage numbers and a founder interview can each carry a day. The agency’s job is to hold some of them back and place them through the week.
The Agency for This: MarketAcross
MarketAcross has done blockchain PR from Tel Aviv since 2014 and charges in an unusual way. It takes no retainer and bills only for coverage that gets published, so the list of outlets is agreed before any money moves. That model fits a seven-day press plan well, because every story in the sequence is a defined deliverable. Its sister company, Chainwire, is a press release wire for crypto news sites, which gives it distribution it controls. Polkadot, Binance, Polygon, Crypto.com, KuCoin and Tron have been clients.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| marketacross.com | 2014 | Tel Aviv, Israel | Under 49 | Pay per published result, no retainer; minimum budget $10,000 to $25,000 |
Pros
- You pay for coverage delivered, not hours worked
- Owns a crypto press release wire
- Twelve years of editor relationships
Cons
- Community management is not its trade
- The minimum budget shuts out very small launches
- Limited paid advertising service
Problem 3: The Token Itself Gives People No Reason to Hold
Every token that launched in 2025 with a fully diluted valuation above $1 billion was trading below its launch price by the end of the year, with a median fall of 81%. Tokens that started under $100 million were three times more likely to have a positive first month than those above $500 million. Hype at a high valuation leaves buyers with nowhere to go but down.
The other design flaw is a token with nothing to do. If staking, governance or in-product use is not live on day one, the only action available to a holder is selling. No campaign can talk around that. The marketing plan and the token design have to be drawn up together.
The Agency for This: TokenMinds
TokenMinds is the one firm here that designs the token as well as promoting it. Working from Singapore since 2017, it handles tokenomics, smart contracts, sale structure and then the community and PR work. That removes the usual gap between what the developers shipped and what the marketers announced. It leans toward established companies raising money through a token for the first time, and 45% of its clients are enterprises. Clients rate it 5.0 from 15 reviews on Clutch.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tokenminds.co | 2017 | Singapore | 10 to 49 | Minimum project $5,000; $50 to $99 an hour; most engagements $50,000 to $199,999 |
Pros
- Token design, build and marketing in one place
- Good fit for companies new to crypto
- Strong base for Asian markets
Cons
- Marketing is the smaller part of its work
- Full engagements are expensive
- A poor match for meme coins and fast community launches
Problem 4: Nobody With Real Money Was Lined Up
Retail buyers arrive on launch day. Funds, angels and large private buyers decide weeks earlier, and they are the ones who hold through the first dip. A launch with no committed larger holders has no floor. When the airdrop sellers leave, nobody is on the other side.
Getting in front of those buyers is closer to investor relations than to marketing. It involves a data room, a clear deck, warm introductions and many calls. Most crypto marketing agencies do not offer it.
The Agency for This: Crowdcreate
Crowdcreate has offered it since 2014. The Los Angeles agency runs outreach to funds and high-net-worth buyers before private and public sale rounds, and pairs that with influencer and community work. Its early results set the pattern: Bezant reached its $17 million hard cap, and Lendingblock’s Telegram group grew forty times over. It later worked with The Sandbox, Star Atlas and KuCoin, which explains its strength in gaming and metaverse tokens.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| crowdcreate.us | 2014 | Los Angeles, USA | 10 to 49 | Custom quote for each campaign; minimum project $10,000 |
Pros
- Investor outreach is a core service
- More than ten years in crypto communities
- Strong in gaming and metaverse tokens
Cons
- No public rate card
- A smaller press operation than PR specialists
- Search work is a minor service
Problem 5: People Search Your Token and Find Scammers
The first thing a curious buyer does is search the token name. In launch week that search is a mess. Copycat sites buy ads on the name, fake contract addresses spread on forums, and a scam warning thread about an unrelated project with a similar ticker can outrank you. Our cryptocurrency SEO statistics show how much of crypto’s traffic starts with a search, and all of it is exposed here.
There is now a second search box to worry about. Buyers ask ChatGPT or Perplexity whether a token is legitimate. If those tools have nothing reliable to draw on, they say so, or they repeat whatever the loudest forum post claimed.
The Agency for This: ICODA
ICODA, founded in 2017, handles search as part of a full launch package. It gets the official site, docs and tracker listings ranking for the token name before the launch, and it runs AI search visibility work so that assistants describe the project accurately. Because the same contract covers PR, KOLs, community moderation and listing support, the search work is fed by real coverage and not bolted on later. It reports more than 650 clients and is rated 5.0 from 31 reviews on Clutch, where on-time delivery is the most common praise.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| icoda.io | 2017 | Wroclaw, Poland | 10 to 49 | Minimum project $10,000; $25 to $49 an hour; most engagements $10,000 to $49,999 |
Pros
- Search and AI visibility built into launch work
- One contract for nearly every launch task
- Low hourly rate for its experience
Cons
- Broad coverage means fewer deep specialists
- Less known in the US
- Premium creators are billed on top
Problem 6: The Project Looks Like Every Other Launch
CoinGecko counted 11.6 million tokens that died in 2025. Against that volume, a launch with a stock logo, a gradient website and a mascot borrowed from last month’s trend is invisible. People cannot hold what they cannot remember.
Brand is the cheapest thing to get right before launch and the hardest to fix after. A name people can say, a look they recognise in a feed, and a presence at the conferences where funds and builders meet all make every later post and press story work harder.
The Agency for This: Hype
Hype has worked from Berlin since 2017 on the culture side of crypto: brand, creative, social and events. It has collaborated with more than 250 projects and splits its work evenly across branding, event marketing, strategy and social. For a launch that means a distinct identity, plus side events and activations at major conferences in the weeks around the token generation event. Its clients are mid-market and enterprise, and its minimum reflects that.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hype.partners | 2017 | Berlin, Germany | 50 to 249 | Minimum project $50,000 |
Pros
- Strong brand and creative work
- Runs conference events and activations
- Experience across more than 250 projects
Cons
- The highest minimum budget on this page
- Aimed at well-funded projects
- Search and performance marketing are not its focus
Problem 7: The Budget Ran Out Before Launch Week
Teams often spend heavily three months out, when enthusiasm is high, and arrive at launch week with nothing left for the press and creator push that matters most. Our crypto marketing statistics show how unevenly projects split their money across channels.
A simple rule helps: hold back at least 40% of the total budget for the two weeks either side of launch. For a small team, fixed-price packages make that easier than open-ended retainers, because the cost of launch week is known on day one.
The Agency for This: FINPR
FINPR sells exactly that. The Dubai agency, founded in 2017, offers PR and influencer placements as fixed packages, with a minimum budget under $1,000. A small team can book a set of articles on crypto news sites and a batch of creator posts for launch week and know the full cost in advance. It also helps with exchange listing applications. More than 250 startups have used it, including Gate.io, Klaytn, Wanchain and Polkadex.
| Website | Founded | Headquarters | Team Size | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| finpr.agency | 2017 | Dubai, UAE | Under 49 | Minimum budget under $1,000; $25 an hour |
Pros
- The lowest entry cost on this page
- Fixed packages with a known price
- Fast turnaround on press
Cons
- Less strategic guidance than larger firms
- Top-tier outlets cost more than base packages
- A small team for multi-market launches
Find Your Weakest Point
Few projects have all eight problems. Most have two or three. Answer these honestly and the agency you need tends to pick itself.
| Question | If the Answer Is No |
|---|---|
| Would most of your community still be here without an airdrop? | Lunar Strategy |
| Do you have five separate news stories ready for launch week? | MarketAcross |
| Have your chosen creators moved buyers for another token before? | Blockwiz |
| Can a holder do something with the token on day one? | TokenMinds |
| Have funds or large private buyers committed before launch? | Crowdcreate |
| Does your official site rank first for your token name? | ICODA |
| Could a stranger describe your brand after seeing it once? | Hype |
| Is at least 40% of your budget reserved for launch fortnight? | FINPR |
Two Agencies Are Often Better Than One
The problems come in pairs. Weak community and weak creator choice usually appear together, so Lunar Strategy and Blockwiz work well side by side. A thin press plan and a messy search page share a cause, a lack of credible coverage, so MarketAcross and ICODA complement each other. Token design and investor outreach both happen early, which makes TokenMinds and Crowdcreate a natural first-quarter pairing before any public campaign begins.
If you split the work, give both agencies one shared announcement calendar. Mixed messages between the press and the community chat are a week-one problem of their own. For projects that need longer-term growth after the launch, our list of Web3 marketing agencies covers firms built for that stage.
What No Marketing Agency Can Fix
Three things sit outside any agency’s reach, and it is better to know them before signing a contract.
Liquidity. If the order book is thin, a modest sale moves the price a long way. That is a market maker’s job. A good agency will ask who your market maker is. It cannot be one.
Unlock schedules. If a large tranche of team or investor tokens unlocks in month one, selling will follow regardless of sentiment.
A product nobody uses. Marketing brings people to the door once. Whether they come back depends on what is behind it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does the First Week of a Token Launch Matter So Much?
Because early selling tends to feed on itself. Arrakis found that only 9.4% of tokens that fell in their first week recovered later. Buyers read a falling chart as a verdict, and new buyers stay away.
How Early Should a Token Launch Agency Be Hired?
Three to four months before the token generation event. Token design and investor outreach come first, community building takes at least eight weeks, and press and creators are booked in the final three.
How Much Should a Project Spend on Launch Marketing?
Small launches run on $5,000 to $25,000 using fixed packages. Most funded projects spend $25,000 to $100,000 across three months. Launches with brand work, conference events and top creators go past $100,000.
Is an Airdrop Still Worth Doing?
Yes, when it rewards real usage. Airdrops based on activity that is costly to fake, combined with filtering of farming wallets, produce holders. Open giveaways produce sellers.
Can One Agency Handle an Entire Token Launch?
A full-service firm such as ICODA can cover most of it under one contract. Projects with a specific weak point usually get a better result by adding a specialist for that single job.
What Should an Agency Report After Launch Week?
Holder count and how it changed across the seven days, the share of airdrop tokens sold, coverage published by day, and search results for the token name. Impressions alone tell you very little.
