2025 Cryptocurrency Chinese-Language KOL Marketing Analysis
In 2025, the global cryptocurrency industry has experienced explosive growth. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies surged from $2.31 trillion at the beginning of 2024 to $3.33 trillion by year-end, a remarkable increase of 44.2%. The user base has also expanded rapidly: according to industry data, the total number of active addresses on major blockchains skyrocketed from 70 million in August 2024 to over 160 million by year-end, a nearly 20-fold increase compared to 2021.
As market enthusiasm continues to rise, influencer marketing has become increasingly critical in the crypto space. In 2023, the global influencer (KOL) marketing market was valued at $21 billion. In the attention-driven crypto industry, KOLs serve as a vital bridge between projects and users, with their influence being particularly pronounced. The Chinese market is no exception, with marketing investments continuing to grow: projections indicate that China’s KOL marketing investment will see a growth rate of approximately 26% in 2025, maintaining double-digit growth. Notably, the Chinese-speaking community holds a significant position in the global crypto ecosystem — a study of over 130,000 crypto social media accounts found that about 7% use Chinese, second only to English. These data points underscore that leveraging KOL influence has become an indispensable strategy for crypto projects targeting the Chinese market or expanding globally.
This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the current state and challenges of the Chinese-language crypto KOL marketing ecosystem, supported by data and case studies, and explore potential solutions for future development.
Current State of Chinese-Language KOL Marketing in 2025
Despite the opportunities, the Chinese-language crypto KOL marketing ecosystem in 2025 reveals several challenges and pain points. On one hand, the market is flooded with so-called “shill” KOLs — low-quality influencers who chase trends and produce generic content for profit, leading to content homogenization and declining trust. On the other hand, non-standardized pricing systems and inefficient collaboration processes significantly hinder marketing efficiency: KOL pricing varies widely and lacks transparency, making it difficult for projects to assess the reasonableness of their investments; communication and docking processes are slow, with many teams lacking professional KOL management and content control capabilities. Additionally, high-quality, influential Chinese-language KOLs with strong credibility are scarce, creating a stark supply-demand imbalance. These issues make the Chinese crypto KOL marketing landscape a “minefield,” urgently calling for more standardized, data-driven, and platform-based solutions.
1. Proliferation of “Shill” KOLs
Many so-called KOLs churn out content solely for rewards, resulting in uneven quality and severe homogenization. Studies indicate that marketing mechanisms on platforms like Kaito and Cookie often foster “shill” behavior, producing repetitive, superficially professional but ultimately hollow promotional posts. Moreover, micro-accounts participating in promotions often follow each other, leading to overlapping audiences and inflated reach metrics that fail to attract new users. Low-quality and AI-generated content further causes audience fatigue, making it difficult for marketing investments to translate into meaningful growth.
2. Opaque Pricing
Traditional KOL collaboration pricing is often controlled by agencies or MCNs, lacking transparency and standardized mechanisms. Research highlights that the centralized nature of Web2 platforms contributes to opaque KOL marketing and high fees. For instance, project teams often bear platform service fees, token incentives, and additional payments to top-tier KOLs, resulting in exorbitant costs that are hard to compare. The lack of transparent pricing and objective evaluation systems increases risks for project teams during budget planning.
3. Low Collaboration Efficiency
KOL marketing processes are cumbersome, with long cycles from selection to docking to performance monitoring. Some professional platforms note that a lack of trust and standardization often leads to disputes between project teams and KOLs, delaying promotional progress. Additionally, KOLs’ operational capabilities vary widely, with some failing to deliver expected results or even leaking project information, wasting marketing resources. Overall, information asymmetry and high communication costs result in low collaboration efficiency.
4. Lack of Evaluation StandardsThe industry currently lacks a unified system for assessing KOL influence and performance, with selections often based on experience or incomplete data, making it challenging to quantify promotional effectiveness. Studies suggest that existing platforms struggle to measure and optimize KOL marketing performance, leaving project teams without effective tools to verify KOL quality and ROI. Some agencies are experimenting with data and AI tools to evaluate KOL influence, aiding in the selection of suitable collaborators.
5. Scarcity of High-Quality KOL Resources
A significant supply-demand imbalance characterizes the Chinese crypto KOL ecosystem: while project teams seek influential and trustworthy KOLs, high-quality KOLs are extremely rare. Top-tier KOLs have become a scarce “strategic resource.” Only a handful of Chinese-language KOLs with large followings and broad influence exist, primarily active on platforms like Weibo, WeChat, or Twitter. These KOLs are in high demand, with fully booked schedules and rising costs. However, no amount of budget can create more top-tier KOLs, as the market simply lacks sufficient supply to meet the growing promotional needs.
The Chinese crypto KOL market currently resembles a “pyramid structure”: a few top-tier KOLs dominate influence at the top, while the base consists of countless obscure micro-accounts. Project teams competing for top-tier KOLs face high costs and diminishing returns. The key to breaking through lies in discovering and nurturing more high-quality KOLs and smarter ways to combine KOL resources. The scarcity of high-quality KOLs highlights the growing importance of establishing standardized, platform-based mechanisms to expand the supply of quality influence.
Addressing These Pain Points
To tackle these challenges, new solutions have emerged, such as platform-based transparent pricing, influencer evaluation tools, and intelligent distribution platforms (e.g., Kaito, Cookie). Advanced KOL evaluation tools and services leverage big data and AI to assess KOL quality and tiering. For example, some platforms analyze social data, combining metrics like audience demographics, engagement rates, and historical performance to provide detailed KOL evaluation reports. These tools allow project teams to select KOLs that align closely with their target audience and demonstrate stable performance, reducing resource waste. However, this often requires significant time and effort, and project teams must account for influencers’ response times to avoid missing critical promotional windows.
Innovative marketing tools like Kaito and Cookie use task-incentive mechanisms to encourage thousands of micro-KOLs to participate in promotions voluntarily. Project teams simply publish marketing tasks and set incentive rules, and the platform’s algorithms automatically distribute rewards based on each KOL’s interaction volume, enabling viral information spread.
This decentralized distribution approach significantly expands marketing scale: numerous KOLs collectively promote project updates, reaching a wide audience in a short time. Unlike traditional one-on-one negotiations, this model reduces manual docking costs, helping projects quickly build exposure and community buzz. However, AI accounts and low-quality accounts have become another challenge.Cookie / Kaito Marketing vs. Traditional KOL Marketing Agencies: In-Depth Comparative Study
In the future, project teams will increasingly use evaluation tools and data models to select KOLs, leverage platform-based pricing to reduce costs, and adopt a “long-tail + top-tier” strategy. For example, using Kaito or Cookie for broad foundational exposure, combined with top-tier KOLs for in-depth promotion, allows projects to balance coverage and reputation while controlling costs. Additionally, the industry needs to establish KOL performance evaluation systems, using on-chain and off-chain metrics to measure promotional impact. Cookie3 × ChainPeak: Web3 KOL Advertising Guide (Latest)If you’ve encountered situations where directly negotiating with KOLs results in “inflated” prices, consider reaching out to ChainPeak. All influencers are pre-screened, and we match you with KOLs best suited for your project. As an agency, we leverage bulk negotiation power to offer prices far lower than direct dealings. Long-term partnerships can enjoy customized packages and annual discounts, saving over 30% on costs.
Conclusion
In 2025, the Chinese-language crypto KOL marketing ecosystem, while thriving, faces five major challenges:The proliferation of “shill” behavior: low-quality content undermines promotional effectiveness and may harm project reputation.
Inconsistent KOL quality: significant disparities in content quality and delivery capabilities, with insufficient high-quality content supply.
Chaotic pricing systems: lack of transparent standards makes it hard for projects to plan ROI.
Inefficient collaboration processes: the absence of professional teams and tools slows marketing execution and increases risks.
Scarcity of top-tier KOLs: supply-demand imbalances drive up costs, and traditional models cannot meet growing promotional needs.In-Depth Forecast of Web3 Marketing Trends for 2025
These intertwined issues prevent Chinese-language KOL marketing from realizing its full potential. The market demands more standardized, data-driven, and platform-based solutions:
Standardization: Establishing unified evaluation systems and collaboration norms to enhance trust and efficiency.
Data-driven: Using data analytics to assess KOL influence and audience quality, guiding investment decisions with objective metrics.
Platform-based: Integrating resources through technology platforms to enable efficient matching between projects and numerous KOLs.
Some industry pioneers are already exploring these solutions, such as platforms creating “digital profiles” for each KOL, quantifying their content value and engagement efficiency, and optimizing matching with algorithms. Agencies like ChainPeak integrate extensive high-quality Chinese-language KOL and media resources, offering one-stop standardized services. These efforts aim to increase information transparency, reduce communication costs, and ensure content quality, providing new ideas for upgrading the marketing of Chinese-language crypto projects. Check transparent pricing for free.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to distinguish genuine KOLs from fake ones?
Assessing a KOL’s authenticity and value involves examining fan quality and content credibility. First, check fan engagement: high follower counts with low interaction may indicate fake followers. The quality of active fans’ comments also reflects audience authenticity. Second, evaluate whether the KOL’s regular content is professional, objective, and free from obvious exaggeration or “scammy” behavior.
What are the advantages of collaborating with Chinese-language KOLs through ChainPeak?
As an agency, we leverage bulk negotiation power to offer prices far lower than direct dealings. Long-term partnerships enjoy customized packages and annual discounts, saving over 30% on costs.
How to calculate ROI for KOL marketing?
ROI for KOL marketing can be assessed by tracking metrics like clicks, registrations, and conversion rates, comparing them to collaboration costs.
How to find reliable Chinese-language KOLs?
Look for industry reputation and use data screening. Start by researching reputations within the Chinese crypto community: follow recommendations from trusted media, communities, or experienced local partners to compile a list of influential, well-regarded KOLs. Alternatively, use platforms like ChainPeak, which provide vetted lists of high-quality KOLs.
Should you contact KOLs directly or use professional platforms/agencies?
This depends on your team’s resources and experience. If your team has local connections, sufficient manpower, and familiarity with the Chinese crypto ecosystem, direct contact can save costs. However, in most cases, professional platforms or agencies save time and effort. Agencies have KOL databases and established docking processes, enabling quick matching with suitable KOLs at discounted bulk rates. They also help manage content quality and promotion schedules, avoiding pitfalls for newcomers. When choosing a platform/agency, verify their credibility and case studies. For projects new to the Chinese market, professional services often deliver better results, while direct management may involve a steep learning curve. Start with small-scale collaborations and transition to independent operations as your team builds experience and networks. Schedule an online meeting.
Additional Resources
Website: https://chainpeak.pro/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/chainpeak
Global KOL Resource Group: https://t.me/globalcryptokol
Global Mod Resource Group: https://t.me/web3modglobal