Polkadot’s $37M Outreach Reveals Crypto Spending Secrets!

Key Points:

• Polkadot spent nearly $37 million on outreach in the first half of 2024, a 300% increase from late 2023. The company focused on sports sponsorships, influencer marketing, and events.
• Despite hefty spending, Polkadot’s weekly active users dropped to 23,300 from a peak of 94,400 at the start of the year, raising questions about the effectiveness of its marketing strategy.

Polkadot’s recent financial disclosures represent an extremely uncommon and fascinating glimpse into the reaches that blockchain projects go in spending their funds—a window into the priorities of crypto elites.

In a report published by anonymous contributor alice_und_bob, it was revealed that Polkadot spent almost $37 million on “outreach” in the first half of 2024, up an eye-popping 300% from the $7.7 million the blockchain used in the second half of 2023.

According to the report, outreach pertains to several activities to grow DOT’s ecosystem through new users, developers, and businesses. This hefty investment included a highly visible sports sponsorship deal with a prestigious soccer club, which took $6.8 million, and $4.9 million was pumped into influencer marketing via several agencies. Polkadot also reported roughly $7.9 million on events, including conferences and side events, notably the Decoded Conference in China, which cost $560,000 alone.

Polkadot’s Aggressive Outreach Spending Raises Eyebrows

Despite the aggressive spending on these strategies, the results appear lacklustre. According to data from Token Terminal, Polkadot’s weekly active users plunged to around 23,300 from its peak of 94,400 at the start of the year, which very steeply signals something about the efficiency of Polkadot’s costly outreach strategies.

Many in the crypto community have also raised controversy over DOT’s spending. While critics have argued that the lavish expenses do not yield expected growth in users, others believe this is simply what needs to be done for long-term success. One user on X — the former Twitter — EstherJade1 defended this strategy, adding that such high-visibility sponsorships, like Lionel Messi’s club Inter Miami CF, would help in due time.