Crypto APAC GTM Playbook: Navigating the Asian Landscape

APAC (Asia Pacific) is a diverse and complex region, with each country characterised by its own language (sometimes overlapping), culture, and social norms. Navigating the landscape requires local knowledge, cultural sensitivity, and tailored localisation strategies.

From China's stringent bans to the more established regulatory frameworks in Japan and Singapore, success in the APAC region hinges on embracing local culture and communication platforms like WeChat and Line.

Strategic partnerships with key regional KOLs and grassroots communities are essential to authentically amplify the project’s vision and foster better engagement through local media and events.

This guide breaks down APAC into key regions, starting with a write-up of each market and strategies including media outlets, KOLs, VCs, and key events.

The flow for project founders: identify local media to amplify upcoming catalysts, work with KOLs or local agencies to craft important narratives and
simultaneously build mindshare, raise from local funds for strategic value-add, partner with CEXes (web3 wallets) and host grassroots events to connect with users.

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1. 🇨🇳 China
• Focus: Speculation, Metrics
• Messaging Apps: WeChat, Telegram, Weibo
• Top Platforms: Binance, GMGN
• Key Strategies:
> Work with strong KOLs to amplify catalysts and news
> Use Binance Square + Chinese media for distribution
> Promote via WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, and Discord (via VPN)
> Tap into speculative culture with memes, DeFi, and PVP narratives

Despite regulatory challenges and clampdowns, China remains influential in the crypto space through offshore activities.

This is because China is where the money is at —> most of the whales and retailers here are very degen and crypto native. Highly sought after market for both trading volume, TVL and user metrics.

To maximise exposure, partner with a Chinese media to maximise exposure and work with good KOLs to amplify upcoming catalysts. Most if not all of the media outlets require payment in USD. Partnering with the likes of OKX and Binance wallet is good for retail exposure and cross-marketing.

Also can opt to make use of Binance Square(social networking content platform) together with KOLs to amplify project updates and news.

In China, people use a combination of Twitter, WeChat, Weibo, Telegram and Discord for communication and private crypto (trading) groups to share alpha and the latest projects. Keep in mind that most sites are still banned by the Chinese government, so users will need to use VPN.

Users rely heavily on Chinese KOL and content creators for information, and read news portals to stay up to date with the latest news.

Consumer dApps may want to explore marketing on other Chinese social media (apart from WeChat) such as Douyin (Chinese TikTok) and Xiaohongshu (lifestyle focused app).

Chinese users are very PVP and highly speculative (fomo) because of the finance-driven culture, making money is the ultimate goal. Strong preference for memes and DeFi ponzi to ensure wealth effect. They are usually quite fast to things (BRC-20, ordinals, memes, bitcoin + eth).

Most of the biggest CEXes in the industry are from China, they care a lot about metrics (revenue, on-chain volume, user growth) + bringing in new users (user adoption) before considering a listing. All require some sort of payment (tokens or stables) to list.

With CEXs wallets becoming more popular, a popular strategy is also to partner with Web3 wallets (Binance, OKX, Bitget wallet) to increase mindshare and leverage it as targeted user acquisition.

拉盘

a) Media / marketing
• Chinese and English: @WuBlockchain, @bwenews, @TechFlowPost, @ChainCatcher_, @Foresight_News, @PANewsCN
• Chinese: @OdailyChina, @BlockBeatsAsia,, @ChainNewscom, @BiteyeCN

b) Accelerators
None

c) KOL agencies
• @iamyourchaos
• @snow949494
• @EnHeng456
• @Cipher_Dance
• @ShardingCapital

d) Venture Funds
• Legacy: @fenbushim, @ofrfund, @YoubiCapital, @QimingVC
• Active: @waterdripfund, @genventurecap, @skyvisioncap, @Sky9Capital, @MetaWebVC, @CsquaredVC, @Mint_Ventures, @SevenXVentures, @JSquare_co / @DFG__Official, @iobc_capital

e) KOLs
• General: @Phyrex_Ni, @hebi555, @BTCdayu, @BroLeonAus, @Wolfy_XBT, @yuyue_chris
• Trading: @brc20niubi, @0xSunNFT, @0xcryptowizard

f) CEXes
• T1: @binance
• T2: @okx, @Bybit_Official
• T3: @bitgetglobal, @Gate_io, @kucoincom, @HTX_Global, @MEXC_Official, @BingXOfficial

g) Conferences
None due to regulatory issues. Most of the biggest conferences will take place in Hong Kong anyway (China’s sandbox). Work with local local KOLs/agency to arrange smaller events/meetups 2. 🇰🇷South Korea
• Focus: Narrative Trading
• Messaging Apps: KakaoTalk, Telegram
• Top Platforms: Upbit, Bithumb
• Key Strategies:
> Partner with local KOL agencies for local campaigns
> Use Telegram/YouTube to reach hype traders and airdrop farmers
> Work with advisory firms for local campaigns
> Tap into Korean Blockchain Week for visibility

South Korea faces the same hurdle as China in terms of regulatory challenges, despite this Korea presents a unique opportunity with crypto exchanges that processed a staggering US$2 billion in trading volume.

Understanding Korean retail is crucial —> Koreans are trendsetters and avid followers of the latest hype. Projects must continually refresh marketing materials and present innovative narratives to maintain interest. Users are typically narrative/hype traders, or airdrop farmers.

Telegram (KOL channels), KakaoTalk and YouTube dominate crypto news and activity, while lesser traction on Twitter and Discord. There are also local blogs and forums like Naver for trading discussions.

Holds one of the largest crypto conferences annually: Korean Blockchain Week.

TLDR: Map out the local ecosystem → work with a local advisory firm → plan a localised marketing campaign → understand Korean retails → don't take advantage of Korean trading volume just because it is high.

I wrote more thoughts on Korean market playbook here: x.com/ahboyash/statu…

a) Media / marketing
• Korean and English: @FourPillarsFP, @DeSpreadTeam, @Tiger_Research_, @DecipherGlobal
• Korean: @official_naver, @eBlockmedia, @CoinnessGL, @bloomingbit_io, @tokenpostkr, @with_blockmedia

b) Accelerators
• @SuperteamKorea
• @0xShardLab
• @FACTBLOCK
• @xwavelabs

c) KOL agencies
• @Xangle_official
• @DeSpreadTeam
• @0xundefined_
• @INF_CryptoLab
• @EncodingLabs
• @Whitewater_Labs
• @071_labs

d) Venture Funds
• @hashed_official
• @SamsungNext
• @Presto_Labs
• @nonceclassic
• @LECCAVentures
• @blocore_vc

e) KOLs
• @Edward__Park
• @JayLovesPotato + @Steve_4P
• @0xProfessorJo
• @JuhyukB
•@eth_apple

f) CEXes
• @Official_Upbit
• @BithumbOfficial
• @CoinoneOfficial

g) Conferences
• @kbwofficial
• @bwbusan

1/ With over $700m in TVL, @sanctumso is poised to capture a large share of the @solana liquid staking token (LST) market share by building a unified liquidity layer.

They envision a future where all staked $SOL can be used across Solana dApps - solving the liquidity fragmentation problem.

In this thread, I cover:
• History and problems of staking, introduction of liquid staking tokens (LST)
• Sanctum’s products (LSTs, stake accounts, reserve pool, trade router and Infinity)
• How to get started + Wonderland campaign
• Personal thoughts with relevant data

Join me in LST Wonderland 🧵 2/ TLDR of Staking + LSTs
(a) History
• Solana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) network where $SOL is staked to participate in the consensus of the network (block validation).
• The higher the amount is staked = the more secure the chain is. In return for staking, users get rewarded in more $SOL tokens.
• How to natively stake $SOL: Use @phantom to stake —> Phantom creates a stake account —> this account will be delegated to the validator of choice —> receive rewards.

(b) Problem
• Holding just plain $SOL alone causes users to lose out to inflation (rewards go to the stakers).
• However, staking $SOL with validators = capital opportunity cost as the staked $SOL cannot be used in other dApps (i.e. unable to generate yield on the staked $SOL).

(c) Solana LSTs
• In 2020, Lido was created on Ethereum which revolutionised the staking ecosystem. Users could now stake with Lido and receive a LST (stETH) which represents their staked ETH on a 1:1 ratio. The liquid stETH could now be used across multiple DeFi dApps and earn yield.
• Probably the best PMF crypto product, the model was replicated on Solana. Solana liquid staking protocols like @jito_sol and @MarinadeFinance have over $1.7 and $1.4b TVL respectively.
• How an LST on Solana is issued: Deposit $SOL into a LST pool —> stake account is created for the user which will be delegated to a group of validators —> user receives the staked $SOL that is liquid and can be used in other dApps + validator rewards.
• The total market cap of staked $SOL is $69b, while the total market cap for Solana LST is only $4b (6% liquid staking ratio) —> increasing the amount of LSTs will therefore unlock huge liquidity on-chain.

(d) Validator LSTs
• Liquid version of a stake account —> $SOL that is deposited into the validator LST pool creates a stake account that is delegated —> the staker receives the validator LST which represents their stake with the validator.
• Sanctum lets validators create their own LST where the staking revenue can be shared with holders.

But alas, tons of liquid staking protocols with different LSTs & liquidity pools lead to liquidity fragmentation - this is where Sanctum comes in.

1/ “Hope is a Fantom that makes a man run a long way."

In comes the spooky revival arc for @fantom with the Sonic-fication of its chain + new token migration into $S.

We discuss the Sonic upgrades + parallelized virtual machine + how to position yourself and get ready 🧵 2/ Introduction
Fantom is a layer-1 blockchain platform aiming to address the limitations of scalability and transaction
costs faced by established networks like Ethereum.

Launched in December 2019, Fantom positions itself as a high-speed, low-cost alternative for developers building dApps and users seeking to interact with DeFi protocols.

1/ Crpto natives mention the term "multisig" a lot, but most don't realize the true behemoth powering all the multisig infra is @safe.

Sharing some thoughts on why we at @Signum_Capital decided to back this protocol that secures more assets than @RobinhoodApp. 2/ Intro
Safe is both the most secure smart contract wallet infra and platform (Safe WALLET) + account abstraction leader (Safe CORE) on Ethereum and the entire EVM space.

It is trusted by some of the largest projects in crypto such as @1inch, @aave and @chainlink + running on 14 networks including Ethereum, @base, @arbitrum and @0xPolygon ().

We view Safe to be an integral foundation for the entire ecosystem due to the gargantuan value they secure.docs.safe.global/home/4337-supp…

1/ @MetisDAO has grown considerably since I covered it way back in 2021. From just being a "Vitalik mother" coin, it has slowly made its way into a top 5 L2 contender.

The token had an incredible past 3 months with a ~10x surge in price since October due to a slew of narratives which led to an increase mindshare on the ecosystem.

This thread aims to outline the different narratives for Metis as well as dApp growth both on the DeFi and consumer apps side. 2/ Pampementals
• $400m ecosystem development fund at current price ()
• First L2 with decentralized sequencer ()
• Speculation on a potential Binance/ UpBit listing
• @nuvosphere inscriptions causing a spike in transactions
• And of course, Vitalik mom koinmetis.io/blog/metis-edf…
metis.io/blog/community…

1/ Mega compilation of Bitcoin ecosystem resources.

Helpful for anyone needing to get up to speed with the latests developments especially pertaining to Ordinals and BRC-20. 2/ Bitcoin ecosystem thesis
•
•
•
•
• medium.com/neworderdao/ma…
portal.vc/bitcoin
standardcrypto.vc/thoughts/bitco…
outlierventures.io/article/bitcoi…
medium.com/ybbcapital/dig…

1/ The opportunity cost of being away from the screen gets higher as more chains and dApps launch.

Crypto ETFs + Bitcoin halving are some pumpemental narratives for a bull market resumption.

It is imperative to establish your foundations to quickly ape into new ponzis: 2/

a) Getting started
• Leave capital/ dust money on different chains in case you need to bridge over to ape a new project/ shitcoin
• Bookmark faucet websites to get gas on new chains ( and are good examples)gas.zip
stakely.io/faucet

1/ Current state of affairs of recent rollups that launched

a) Linea
• Mindshare completely obliterated due to 0 airdrop for testnet users
• Countless testnet campaigns + failed transactions + KYC + faucet problems + no airdrop = no users. *cough* Sui *cough* https://t.co/w2caQMJkQs

https://twitter.com/ahboyash/status/1679522429700558850

2/

b) Base
• Major memecoin $Bald omega rekt (but attracted lots of attention to Base)
• 2 leading DEXs compromised
• However secured tons of partnerships with 3rd party bridges & bluechip protocols
- Ecosystem looks fun with a good blend of DeFi, NFTs and social dApps

Needs an update - TG groups to use to keep updated

1) General roundup
- t.me/defillama_tg @DefiLlama
- t.me/bixindaily @jermywkh
- t.me/jonghodanielpa…
- t.me/GongJiaWei
- t.me/chungdailynote @cchungccc
- t.me/kirbycrypto @kirbyongeo

https://twitter.com/ahboyash/status/1591261849974370305

- t.me/c4dotgg @CJCJCJCJ_
- t.me/TheBabylonians @The_Babylonians

2) News
- t.me/onecryptofeed
- t.me/wublockchainen… @WuBlockchain
- t.me/unfolded

1/ Short thread on how to onboard to @Conflux_Network, the main blockchain of @xiaohongshu (China's Instagram) and the relevant tools you will need to navigate the space: 2/ Add Conflux to Metamask

a) Manual setup
• Network name: Conflux eSpace
• Network URL evm.confluxrpc.com
• Chain ID: 1030
• Block Explorer: evm.confluxscan.io

b) Connect your on-chain wallet to Chainlist.org

1/ Weekend reading list to get you up to speed on the latest innovations in crypto: 2/

Zero Knowledge Proofs
• medium.com/alliancedao/zk…

• paradigm.xyz/2022/04/zk-har…

• sinoglobalcapital.substack.com/p/what-are-the…

1/ Seems like it's airdrop farming szn again after what happened with Aptos.

Enter a new L1 @shardeum, that just raised $18.2m from the likes of Jane Street and Spartan Group and is currently in its testnet phase with a potential airdrop in the future 👀 2/ TLDR: Shardeum is a PoS chain that uses dynamic state sharding which allows it to linearly scale and increase TPS for every node added to the network.

It was founded by @NischalShetty of Wazirx, the largest CEX in India and @OmarUnblocked.

coindesk.com/business/2022/…

1/ Aptos - new chain same playbook?

Move (kek) funds to PvP battle each other > look for new farms + DEXes > doggy coins > NFTs

Its all so tiring but we still do it like the degenerates we are 🫡

A guide to navigate the @AptosFoundation ecosystem 🧵 2/ Wallets
Choose from a plethora of wallets:

@PontemNetwork
@martian_wallet
@FewchaWallet
@PetraWallet

I like Pontem due to its similarity in terms of ui/ux to Metam*sk.

1/ Did you get your $CANTO airdrop anon? Free money in a bear market hits differently 🫡

A guide on the new Cosmos layer 1 @CantoPublic 🧵 2/ TLDR of Canto
Originally a fork of @Evmosorg , Canto is built using Tendermint Consensus with an EVM execution layer in via Cosmos SDK.

It claims to be a full decentralised chain with no presale, no foundation and no VCs.

Read more here: docs.canto.io/overview/about…

1/ How to bridge to @DogechainFamily

Are you really fading this anon? 2/ WTF is DogeChain
TLDR: using Dogecoin to ape into DeFi, NFT, and games. Finally $DOGE has utility?

The class of 2021 will remember @QuickswapDEX and its co-founder @CryptoRocky is part Dogechain's core contributors.

1/ Bear market = more time to hunt for airdrops 👀

Compiling a list of projects that I am actively interacting with to try and get a retroactive airdrop.

* Protocols mentioned are only based on my speculation and not confirmed by the team 2/
a) Bridges
• @nomadxyz_
• @deBridgeFinance
• @AcrossProtocol
• @Orbiter_Finance
• @lifiprotocol
• @ConnextNetwork
• @BungeeExchange
• @SwimProtocol
• @wormholecrypto
• @SuezBridge

1/ A short guide to onboard and get yourself started on @NEARProtocol as a continuation from @j0hnwang's excellent explainer.

Covering:
• How to buy $NEAR
• Setting up a Near wallet
• Bridging
• Tools and DApps ecosystem

https://twitter.com/j0hnwang/status/1477448456499531776?s=20

2/ How to obtain $NEAR
$NEAR is used to pay transaction fees on the blockchain.

Depending on the country you are in and its jurisdictions some CEXs may not apply to you. Choose from the following:
• @cryptocom
• @HuobiGlobal
• @binance
• @gate_io
• @OKEx

1/ An L1 with a current market cap of only $150m? Transaction fees costing less than $0.01??@HsakaTrades (allegedly) market buying $2m worth of $FUSE?!

Today we explore @Fuse_network and how it is positioning itself as an alternative to existing digital payment networks. 2/ TLDR
Fuse is a decentralized blockchain with an overarching aim of enabling mass adoption of crypto payments and DeFi.

It focuses on creating a mobile-centric platform to facilitate token-powered ecosystems and token payments.

1/ Joining the L2 wars is @MetisDAO, an optimistic rollup scaling solution which has just received a $100m fund to boots its ecosystem.

A thread covering:
• Introduction of Metis
• Interesting highlights and differentiating factors
• Bridging guide
• Ecosystem Overview 2/ Metis TLDR
A L2 scaling solution that uses optimistic rollup technology to enable fast transactions and low fees while still being secured by the Ethereum blockchain.

It is also EVM compatible which allows developers to seamlessly deploy contracts from Eth main chain.

1/ With @NEARProtocol and @auroraisnear popping up time for another bridge thread as you don't want to miss out on the next capital rotation! 2/ TLDR
Aurora is an L2 EVM compatible scaling solution built on the NEAR protocol. It also offers high-throughput with low transaction costs for users.

Some of the interesting highlights are summarised below:

1/ A short explanatory thread on @vestafinance covering:
• What the project is about
• How they differentiate themselves from competitors
• Mechanisms
• Why I am excited about this project 2/ TLDR
Vesta Finance is a lending protocol (currently building on Arbitrum) that allows users to borrow $VST stablecoin against their collateral without having to pay interest rates

It offers instant redemptions and is governed by a stability pool (auto liquidations)