Paid placement in crypto splits into four kinds of inventory, and they are not interchangeable. The difference that matters is not audience size but what the person was doing when your banner appeared.
Blockchain explorers: the reader already has a wallet open
The most under-used inventory in crypto. Someone reading a block explorer has a wallet open and is checking a transaction – they are as far from a passive audience as this industry offers. Targeting is by chain, which means you reach holders of the ecosystem you are launching on rather than crypto readers in general.
| Explorer | Monthly visits | Chain |
|---|---|---|
| Solscan | 3.9M | Solana |
| Etherscan | 3.4M | Ethereum |
| BscScan | 2.3M | BNB Chain |
| Basescan | 918K | Base |
| Polygonscan | 759K | Polygon |
| Blockscout | – | Multi-chain |
| Ethplorer | 186K | Ethereum tokens |
| CardanoScan | 73K | Cardano |
| FTMScan | n/a | Fantom |
| Chainz.CryptoID | 84K | Multi-chain |
Crypto media: familiarity, weaker on immediate response
Banner and display placements on publications people read to keep up rather than to act. Good for familiarity and for looking established; weaker on immediate response than explorer inventory.
| Publication | Monthly visits |
|---|---|
| Cointelegraph | 698K |
| CoinDesk | 3.7M |
| BeInCrypto | 1.3M |
| CryptoTimes | 104K |
| CriptoNoticias | 278K |
| CryptoPotato | 267K |
| NewsBTC | 63K |
Data Platforms and Communities
| Platform | Monthly visits |
|---|---|
| CoinMarketCap | 38.3M |
| CoinMarketCal | 191K |
| Publish0x | 159K |
| Bitcointalk | 1M |
CoinMarketCap is the outlier here by audience size, and the intent is closer to an explorer than to a publication – people arrive to check a price, not to read.
Mainstream platforms: more reach, and every one of them restricts financial promotion
Google, Meta, X, Reddit, Quora and YouTube all reach far more people than any crypto site, and all restrict financial promotion. What actually gets approved differs by platform and by product, and the restriction is usually the deciding factor rather than the cost.
| Platform | Position on crypto |
|---|---|
| Google Ads | Certification required; licensed products only, with country-level restrictions |
| Meta – Facebook and Instagram | Written permission required; most token promotion refused |
| X | More permissive than the others, with its own approval process |
| YouTube | Follows Google Ads policy; creator placements are a separate route |
| Allowed with restrictions, and subreddit rules apply on top | |
| Quora | Allowed; useful for question-led intent rather than volume |
| Telegram Mini Apps | Newer inventory, crypto-native audience, less competition so far |
One number worth putting in context: Meta reports billions of monthly users, and that figure appears on a lot of agency pages selling crypto Facebook ads. It is Meta’s global user base, not an audience you can reach with a crypto product. Judge these platforms on what they will approve, not on how many people they have.
Regional and Language Editions
These outlets are small by global traffic but dominate a single market. They earn their place when a launch is aimed at one country rather than at the sector as a whole.
| Publication | Monthly visits | Primary market |
|---|---|---|
| The Crypto Times | 104K | India – 30.6% |
| CriptoNoticias | 278K | Spain – 27.5%, Mexico – 12.8% |
| SiamBlockchain | 136K | Thailand – 98.5% |
| CryptoDnes | 47K | Bulgaria – 48.5% |
| HappyCoin.club | 11K | Russia – 25.2%, Turkey – 7.5% |
| The Currency Analytics | 11K | United States – 33.4%, India – 13.4% |
Read these figures as national audiences rather than global reach. A Bulgarian or Thai outlet at 50K monthly visits can be the leading crypto publication in its market, which is what a regional placement is bought for.
SiamBlockchain is the clearest case. With 98.5% of its readers in Thailand, a placement there reaches almost nobody outside that market – and almost everybody inside it. Traffic and country shares on this page are measured figures from December 2024.
How do you choose between these placements?
- Launching on a specific chain? Explorer placements on that chain, before anything else.
- Need to look established? Crypto media, several publications at once so the presence reads as consistent.
- Selling a product with a licence? Mainstream platforms become available and the volume is on a different scale.
- No licence and a token to promote? Mainstream is mostly closed; crypto-native inventory is the honest answer.
What does the campaign report show?
Impressions and clicks per placement, click-through rate against that site’s own history, and where traffic went after the click. Placements that underperform their own past numbers are named in the report rather than averaged away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do crypto banner ads still work?
On crypto-native inventory, yes, at modest click-through rates that are normal for display. Treat them as a way to be present where your audience already is rather than as a direct response channel, and judge them on assisted conversions rather than last click.
Why explorers rather than media?
Intent. A reader on a news site is informing themselves; a user on an explorer has a wallet open and is doing something on-chain. For a protocol launch the second audience is worth considerably more per impression, and it costs less because fewer buyers think to ask for it.
Can we advertise a token on Google or Meta?
Rarely without a licence. Google requires certification and restricts by country; Meta requires written permission and refuses most token promotion. If your product is a licensed exchange or a regulated fintech the picture changes entirely – our guide to Google Ads for fintech covers the current verification requirements.
What does it cost?
Budgets start at about $4,000 for a focused single-channel campaign, and $50K-$500K over three to six months for a full-stack launch across PR, KOL, paid media, community and content. Within that, the price of a placement moves with the inventory and with the season, because rates on crypto media track the market. We quote per placement once we know which inventory fits, and we will say when a site is asking more than its traffic justifies.
How many placements does a campaign need?
Fewer sites for longer beats many sites for a week. Display works through repetition, and a banner seen once by a large audience does less than one seen five times by the right one.
Do you handle the creative?
Yes. Each site has its own accepted sizes and formats, and campaigns are delayed more often by creative rework than by anything else, so it is worth doing once properly.
Tell Us What You Are Launching
Send us the product, the chain and the market, and we will come back with the placements worth buying and the ones we would skip. Message us on Telegram.