Atlas / Technology
Industry profile
Crypto & Web3 marketing benchmarks
Strongest on Digital Maturity, weakest on Retention & Loyalty. Crypto & Web3 sits above the national average, and that tension shapes how the whole industry markets.
Score signature
Bars are this industry. Ticks are the national average.
Biggest strength
Digital Maturity
69 out of 100. The engine carrying the whole score.
Biggest gap
Retention & Loyalty
61 out of 100. The dimension dragging the industry down.
Where to start
Retention & Loyalty
The most upside per point of effort: 15% of the score and 1 points below the field.
The map
Where this industry sits
Every dot is an industry we measure. Choose any two dimensions for the axes. Crypto & Web3 is the red mark.
Acquisition Performance →
Crypto & Web3 sits below average on Retention & Loyalty and above average on Acquisition Performance. That tension defines the industry.
The spread inside the industry
Every number is a Marketing Score out of 100. It rolls six dimensions into one figure, so 51 is a business doing the basics and 79 is one that markets like a business twice its size.
The distance between the strongest and weakest performer here is wide. A small cluster is genuinely good. A long tail sits well behind. The bar to lead this industry is lower than the reputation suggests. So where would you land?
The breakdown
How far above or below the field
Each row plots this industry against the whole field. The dot is where Crypto & Web3 sits, the line is the national average and the faint marks are every other industry. Tap a row for what the dimension means.
How modern and capable is the digital setup?
How well does the industry win new demand?
How well does it turn interest into customers?
How well does it keep and grow customers?
How clear and distinct is the brand?
Can any of this actually be measured?
The read
What the numbers say about Crypto & Web3
On the whole, Crypto & Web3 is an above-average industry. It leads on digital maturity and trails on retention & loyalty, and the fastest gains sit in retention & loyalty.
Digital Maturity
Sits in the upper half of every industry we measure. This is the engine carrying the score.
Retention & Loyalty
Sits in the lower half. The soft spot that drags the whole number down.
Retention & Loyalty
Carries the most weight in the score and sits below the field. Move this and the whole number moves with it.
A digital maturity-led industry with a retention & loyalty problem. The reputation says one thing. The pipeline says another.
Go deeper
Marketing maturity in the most volatile category in Australia+
Crypto marketing in Australia exists in a regulatory and reputational environment that does not exist elsewhere. The collapse of FTX, the ASIC crackdown on unlicensed operators and the introduction of licensing requirements for digital asset exchanges have all shaped how the surviving players market themselves.
The composite places crypto in the middle-upper range, which reflects the digital sophistication of the operators that have survived the shakeout. These are not cowboy operations. Companies like CoinSpot, Swyftx, Independent Reserve and BTC Markets have professional marketing teams, compliance-reviewed content and multi-channel acquisition strategies.
Digital maturity leads the pack, as expected for a natively digital category. But it is not as far ahead of the all-industry average as you might expect. The explanation: regulatory constraints limit the marketing tools available. Google restricts crypto advertising to licensed entities. Meta is even more restrictive. This pushes operators towards SEO, content marketing and community building rather than paid acquisition.
Brand and positioning is interesting. The sector has invested heavily in brand, partly out of necessity. After the trust destruction of 2022-2023, the surviving Australian exchanges needed to rebuild credibility. "Australian-owned", "AUSTRAC-registered", "funds held domestically" became brand messages as much as product features.
The retention challenge is structural. Crypto usage is cyclical. During bull markets, engagement is high and retention is easy. During bear markets, even the best products see declining active users. The operators winning on retention are the ones who have built utility beyond trading: staking, earn products, portfolio analytics, tax reporting and educational content.
Digital-first with an acquisition problem+
Acquisition carries 30%, reflecting a sector that lives and dies on user growth. For exchanges, wallets and DeFi platforms, the monthly active user count is the metric that drives valuations, partnerships and regulatory conversations.
Digital maturity at 25% is the highest DM weight across all industries. For a natively digital category, this is both an advantage and a trap. These companies should score higher on digital maturity, and any weakness here signals fundamental issues.
Retention at 15% is deliberately low in the weighting. The crypto market is cyclical. During bull runs, retention is easy. During bear markets, even the best retention strategies cannot overcome the macro. The model adjusts for this.
What moves the needle in crypto marketing+
Acquisition with 30% weight is the priority. In Australia, ASIC-regulated exchanges need to balance aggressive growth with compliance. The winners run educational content strategies that build trust while capturing search demand for terms like "how to buy bitcoin australia" and "best crypto exchange".
Retention with 15% weight can improve through engagement features: portfolio tracking, price alerts, staking rewards and educational content that keeps users active between trading sessions.
Data and tracking with just 3% weight is adequate, but the sector has the infrastructure to do much more. Product analytics, cohort analysis and attribution modelling should be best in class for a digitally native category.
Highlighted terms link through to the marketing dictionary.
Frequently asked
Common questions about Crypto & Web3
How do Australian crypto companies compare on marketing?+
What marketing channels work for crypto in Australia?+
How do crypto marketing restrictions work in Australia?+
Why is crypto retention so challenging?+
Keep exploring
Where to go from here
Pull any thread.