As cookie-based tracking crumbles and privacy becomes the new norm, wallet-based marketing is rapidly emerging as the most accurate, privacy-respecting, and effective strategy for Web3 growth. In 2025, the tools enabling this shift have matured, offering sophisticated features for audience segmentation, attribution, messaging, and retargeting, all based on wallet activity. This guide explores the leading platforms in wallet-based marketing, including Addressable, Spindl, and others, while showing you how to use them to drive real adoption and performance.
1. Why Wallet-Based Marketing Matters in 2025
The end of third-party cookies and the growing demand for privacy have completely reshaped the marketing landscape. Web3 users want to be respected, not tracked. In this new reality, wallets have become the user identity layer. Every transaction, vote, stake, and NFT mint reveals behavior that is transparent, verifiable, and user-controlled.
Unlike Web2 profiles that depend on centralized platforms and invasive tracking pixels, a wallet-based approach honors privacy while enabling marketers to:
- Segment users based on real on-chain behavior (DeFi usage, NFT engagement, DAO participation)
- Personalize experiences (quests, rewards, and access based on wallet history)
- Track conversions accurately across chains and dApps
- Engage users natively through wallet-based messaging tools like XMTP or Notifi
In 2025, the most successful Web3 projects are those who’ve abandoned spray-and-pray tactics and adopted wallet-native growth loops. Whether you’re launching a new token, scaling a DeFi protocol, or running a Layer-2 campaign, wallet-based marketing is no longer optional.
2. What Is Wallet-Based Marketing? (Core Principles)
Wallet-based marketing is the practice of targeting, tracking, engaging, and retaining users based on their blockchain wallet behavior instead of traditional digital identifiers (like cookies, IP addresses, or email IDs).
Its key principles include:
- On-Chain Behavior as Identity: Wallets are pseudo-anonymous, but highly expressive. You can tell a lot about a user based on what protocols they’ve used, how often they transact, and what tokens they hold.
- Consent and Control: Users can choose to receive messages (via XMTP), connect to campaigns (via Layer3/Zealy), or gate access (via NFTs or POAPs).
- Sybil Resistance: Wallet-based analytics can detect suspicious patterns and reduce bot or mercenary behavior.
- Cross-Platform Utility: Wallet data can be used to orchestrate campaigns across social media, Discord, on-chain quests, and even real-world events.
This is not about replacing Web2 analytics with blockchain logs, it’s about designing growth systems that are native to how Web3 actually works.
3. How It Compares to Traditional Digital Marketing
Feature | Traditional Marketing | Wallet-Based Marketing |
---|---|---|
Identity | Email, Cookies, IP | Wallet Address, ENS, SBTs |
Attribution | Ad pixels, UTMs | On-chain events, Spindl, Footprint |
Engagement | Email, Push, Retargeting | XMTP, Notifi, NFT-gated access |
Segmentation | Demographics, Device | On-chain behavior, Protocol usage |
Privacy | Centralized, Invasive | Decentralized, User-Controlled |
Fraud Risk | High (bots, fake signups) | Reduced (sybil filtering) |
Retargeting | Based on cookies | Based on wallet actions & assets |
Wallet-based marketing doesn’t just replace cookies, it offers a new way to build meaningful, value-aligned relationships with users.
4. Key Use Cases: From Airdrop Filtering to Retargeting
Wallet-based marketing isn’t just one strategy, it’s an entire framework for engaging with blockchain-native audiences. Here are some of the most compelling use cases:
- Airdrop Filtering: Don’t waste your token budget on mercenaries. Use wallet analytics to filter for long-term holders, DAO participants, or users with DeFi/NFT history.
- Quest Completion & Progression: Identify users who completed onboarding quests and retarget them with new challenges.
- Product Usage Campaigns: Find users who staked tokens or voted in DAOs, then segment them for upsell or governance incentives.
- Early User Recognition: Reward OG wallets that interacted with your protocol pre-mainnet or during low-liquidity phases.
- Referral Loop Creation: Detect wallets that onboard others and amplify their social impact with NFTs, XP, or direct messages.
- Wallet Re-Engagement: Use tools like Notifi or XMTP to nudge inactive wallets that haven’t returned in 30+ days.
- Cross-Project Campaigns: Filter for wallets that interacted with aligned protocols (e.g., DeFi wallets on Lido + Yearn) and target them with collaborative drops.
Wallet-based marketing enables much more than traditional funnels, it gives you a way to reward behavior, not just attention.
5. Overview of the Top Tools
Tool | Primary Focus | Best Use Case |
---|---|---|
Addressable | Wallet-to-social targeting | Social ad targeting + lookalike wallets |
Spindl | On-chain attribution & analytics | Funnel tracking + LTV measurement |
Cookie3 | Web2 + Web3 hybrid identity graph | Cross-behavior targeting + enrichment |
DappRadar | Wallet segmentation + campaign reach | Broad discovery of Web3-active wallets |
Footprint | Chain-specific cohort analytics | Smart dashboards for wallet clustering |
Notifi | Push notifications & email for wallets | Lifecycle messaging without Web2 data |
XMTP | Wallet-native chat & retargeting | Retarget dormant wallets + enable DMs |
Layer3 / Zealy | Gamified onboarding & retention | On-chain quests, progress ladders, and loyalty |
These tools often work best when combined. Use Addressable for first-touch discovery, Spindl for performance analytics, and Notifi/XMTP for engagement loops.
6. Addressable: Social Ad Targeting via Wallet Graphs
Addressable connects wallet behavior to social media identities (Twitter, Discord) using advanced heuristics. It allows you to build anonymized audiences based on:
- NFT ownership
- Protocol interaction frequency
- DAO participation
And then sync those insights to social platforms for paid ad targeting. You can create lookalike audiences of whales, early adopters, or repeat stakers.
Addressable’s biggest strength is bridging wallet activity with social reach. Want to run a Twitter campaign for wallets that bridged to Base, staked ETH, and voted on Arbitrum governance? Addressable makes it possible, without violating user privacy.
- Upload CSV wallet segments and match to Twitter handles
- Launch paid media campaigns using real-time wallet filters
- Track ad performance back to on-chain activity via connected tools like Spindl or Cookie3
It's a powerful way to make your social ad budget actually count in Web3.
7. Spindl: On-Chain Attribution & Funnel Analytics
Spindl is one of the most advanced platforms for on-chain attribution and performance analytics. Unlike legacy attribution tools that rely on cookie drops or platform integrations, Spindl natively tracks how wallet users move through dApp funnels.
Key Features:
- Multi-chain attribution: Track wallet actions across chains like Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and more.
- UTM-like wallet tracking: Customize URLs that log which campaign or ad generated a wallet connection.
- LTV metrics: Understand long-term wallet value by analyzing token holdings, staking, or product engagement over time.
- Drop-off visualization: Spot where users abandon onboarding flows (e.g., between quest start and token stake).
Spindl enables you to answer critical growth questions:
- Which campaign brought in wallets that still engage 30 days later?
- What onboarding steps correlate with high retention?
- How many wallets completed a swap after seeing a Notifi push?
For product and growth teams, Spindl is the single source of truth for performance attribution in Web3.
8. Cookie3: Web2 + Web3 Behavioral Intelligence
Cookie3 bridges the Web2 and Web3 worlds by building a behavioral identity graph for users that combines on-chain and off-chain signals. It helps projects:
- Segment users based on hybrid behavior (e.g., Reddit comments + NFT minting)
- Score wallets using engagement intelligence
- Enrich audience profiles for more personalized campaigns
Use cases include:
- Identifying "power users" based on both wallet history and social presence
- Creating dynamic leaderboard campaigns that adapt in real-time
- Running performance-based loyalty quests (users get XP if they do both: tweet + swap)
Cookie3’s API and dashboards let you go beyond wallet addresses into the behavioral layer, which is often the missing piece in wallet-based segmentation.
9. DappRadar & Footprint: Data Visibility & Segmentation
DappRadar
DappRadar is best known for its market-wide dApp rankings and wallet activity data. For marketers, it offers powerful insights like:
- Top protocols by unique wallet engagement
- Trending dApps with user spikes
- Behavioral filtering by chain, category (DeFi, NFT, GameFi)
You can discover:
- What chains your ideal user is most active on
- Which competitors are driving wallet interactions
- Historical behavior of your most active cohorts
Footprint
Footprint Analytics is a flexible Web3 data platform ideal for building custom dashboards. It supports wallet segmentation via:
- Time-series charts (DAUs, retention)
- Cohort analysis by chain, wallet age, or holdings
- Heatmaps to detect drop-off or churn trends
With Footprint, a marketer could:
- Visualize how quest participants behaved post-campaign
- Slice wallet activity by NFT mints or protocol usage
- Export segments for follow-up messaging or airdrops
Together, DappRadar and Footprint offer deep visibility into wallet behavior and enable smarter targeting for both discovery and retention.
10. Notifi & XMTP: Wallet-Native Messaging & Engagement
Engagement is more powerful when it's native to the wallet. Tools like Notifi and XMTP enable you to communicate directly with users, without needing email addresses or phone numbers.
Notifi
Notifi allows developers and marketers to send wallet-targeted alerts through email, Telegram, SMS, or push notifications. It connects to a wallet’s on-chain activity and can:
- Trigger messages based on on-chain events (like staking, minting, governance votes)
- Automate onboarding flows or campaign updates
- Notify inactive users about quests or drops they’re eligible for
You can also build behavioral drip campaigns. For example:
- Day 0: "Thanks for connecting your wallet!"
- Day 3: "Don’t forget to complete your first swap for a bonus!"
- Day 7: "Here’s your loyalty badge for staying active."
XMTP
XMTP is a decentralized messaging protocol that enables secure, wallet-native communication. It powers the messaging behind Lens Protocol and other Web3-native dApps.
- Send DM-like messages to users based on wallet actions
- Deliver quests, event invites, or community updates
- Retarget users who haven’t interacted in a while
Both platforms help solve a critical challenge in Web3: how to engage users post-wallet connection without asking for private data. Notifi is ideal for multichannel alerts, while XMTP enables native, persistent conversations.
11. Quest Tools (Galxe, Zealy, Layer3) for Campaign Activation
Quests are the new landing pages. Instead of forms or buttons, Web3 onboarding now often starts with tasks, badges, and XP.
Galxe
Galxe offers identity-linked campaigns using off-chain credentials and on-chain verification. With Galxe, you can:
- Create quests that require specific wallet activity (e.g., staking, voting, minting)
- Distribute NFT badges or allowlist spots
- Build loyalty tiers based on engagement
It's widely used by L1/L2 chains, launchpads, and DAOs.
Zealy (formerly Crew3)
Zealy focuses on gamified community engagement. It excels at:
- Ongoing quest boards for social tasks, participation, and education
- Leaderboards with XP to foster competition
- Discord-native workflows with wallet connection optional
It’s ideal for bootstrapping communities and creating long-term missions.
Layer3
Layer3 delivers polished, curated Web3 experiences with:
- Chain-specific quest curation (e.g., Optimism, Zora, Base)
- Verified on-chain completion tracking
- Token rewards or NFT unlocks
It’s designed for growth loops, getting users to try protocols, complete tutorials, and re-engage over time.
Combined, these tools are central to wallet-based activation. They’re not just about awareness, they create behavioral touchpoints you can measure, segment, and follow up on.
12. Combining Tools into Full-Stack Marketing
To maximize wallet-based marketing, it’s essential to combine these tools into a full-stack strategy that covers:
- Discovery: Use Addressable and Galxe to reach new wallets based on on-chain traits or campaign rewards.
- Attribution: Deploy Spindl or Cookie3 to track which campaigns drive real usage and long-term LTV.
- Segmentation: Use Footprint or DappRadar to build wallet cohorts based on engagement depth.
- Engagement: Trigger lifecycle messaging via Notifi or XMTP.
- Retention: Launch ongoing quests through Zealy or Layer3 with incentives, progress, and gamified XP.
A well-built stack allows you to:
- Turn wallet connects into product usage
- Nurture users based on behavior
- Retarget them without breaching privacy
It’s the future of decentralized marketing, and it’s already working today for dozens of top protocols and DAOs.
13. Real Campaign Examples Using These Tools
Example 1: A Layer 2 Chain Boosting Staking Activity
A major L2 protocol used Addressable and Spindl to launch a wallet-targeted campaign. They:
- Identified wallets that bridged ETH and held the native token
- Retargeted them with Twitter ads linked to a staking campaign
- Used Spindl to track which ad viewers actually staked their tokens
- Notifi then nudged users who didn’t complete the final stake step
Result: 24% higher staking conversion compared to non-segmented ads.
Example 2: NFT Project Building a Loyalty Ladder
An NFT minting platform deployed Galxe quests and Zealy XP to:
- Reward wallets that minted >3 collections
- Encourage referrals through invite-based XP ladders
- Trigger Layer3 follow-ups for event participation
Result: 3x increase in multi-wallet engagement and 2.1x retention post-mint.
Example 3: DeFi App Retargeting Inactive Users
A DeFi lending protocol used Footprint to detect dormant whale wallets and XMTP to message them personalized incentives to:
- Check new yield rates
- Claim pending rewards
- Re-stake positions
Result: 18% of contacted wallets returned within 10 days.
These examples show that when tools are integrated with intent, wallet-based marketing drives behavior that matters, not just impressions.
14. Key Metrics That Matter
Forget CPCs and clickthroughs. In wallet-based marketing, success is measured by:
Metric | Why It Matters |
---|---|
Cost Per Wallet (CPW) | The new north star: how much to acquire an active wallet |
Wallet Retention (Day 7/30/90) | Measures actual stickiness of users, not signups |
Wallet LTV | Tracks value contributed over time: swaps, staking, votes |
Funnel Completion % | Reveals drop-offs in quest flows or onboarding |
Task-to-Token Ratio | Are users completing real actions before claiming? |
Engagement Per Campaign | How many unique touches per wallet in each phase |
Wallet Churn Rate | % of wallets that became inactive after a milestone |
These metrics allow teams to track quality over vanity, and optimize toward real product adoption.
15. Challenges & Limitations
Despite its power, wallet-based marketing isn’t a silver bullet. Here are some realities to consider:
- Identity Linking Is Inexact: Tools like Addressable and Cookie3 use heuristics to map wallet-to-social identities, but accuracy is not 100%. You should always build opt-in options when possible.
- Wallets ≠ Users: One person might control multiple wallets. Metrics like CPW can be skewed unless sybil filtering is applied properly.
- Messaging Opt-In: Platforms like XMTP require wallet holders to opt in to receive messages. Your campaigns must offer real value to get attention.
- Learning Curve: Teams coming from Web2 may struggle to set up queries, understand on-chain behavior, or interpret analytics from platforms like Footprint or Spindl.
- Tool Interoperability: No single tool does everything well. You must stitch together your stack with thoughtful data flows, wallet export-import pipelines, and analytics integration.
Despite these, the potential upside is enormous: smarter campaigns, lower CAC, and users that stick around because they’re aligned, not because they were bribed.
16. FAQs
1. What is wallet-based marketing in simple terms?
Wallet-based marketing is the practice of targeting and engaging users based on their blockchain wallet activity. Unlike Web2 marketing, which relies on cookies or emails, this approach uses on-chain behavior, like staking, minting NFTs, or interacting with DeFi protocols, as a basis for personalized messaging, segmentation, and retargeting.
2. Is wallet-based marketing better than Web2 ad targeting?
In many ways, yes. While Web2 ad targeting offers scale, it also comes with rising costs, privacy concerns, and declining effectiveness due to cookie deprecation. Wallet-based marketing, on the other hand, offers more precise, privacy-respecting targeting by focusing on what users actually do on-chain, not just what they click on.
3. How do tools like Spindl and Addressable know who to target?
Spindl tracks wallet-level activity across different steps of a funnel to show where users come from and what they do afterward. Addressable, on the other hand, uses smart heuristics to map wallet activity to social profiles (like Twitter accounts), enabling targeted social campaigns. Both rely on publicly available blockchain data but analyze it in different ways.
4. Can a project track the lifetime value of a wallet?
Absolutely. Using tools like Spindl or Footprint Analytics, projects can define what value looks like, be it staking, swaps, votes, or NFT purchases, and then track how much value each wallet contributes over time. This helps refine airdrop eligibility and loyalty incentives.
5. Is it ethical to target users based on wallet data?
Yes, if done transparently and respectfully. Blockchain data is public, but ethical wallet-based marketing avoids intrusive assumptions and always encourages opt-in behavior, especially for communications through platforms like XMTP or Notifi. The best campaigns reward genuine participation instead of exploiting data.
6. What are the biggest risks with wallet-based marketing?
• Misinterpreting wallet behavior (e.g., assuming an airdrop hunter is a loyal user)
• Sending messages to users who haven’t opted in
• Over-segmenting audiences and reducing campaign scalability
• Building complicated stacks that are hard to maintain without good data ops
These can be mitigated with proper tooling and ethical practices.
7. Can wallet-based marketing be used outside DeFi and NFTs?
Definitely. GameFi platforms, DAOs, social apps, and even metaverse projects are using wallet data to personalize experiences. As long as your product involves a wallet-based interaction, you can use this strategy to improve acquisition, retention, and re-engagement.
8. How do I get started with wallet-based marketing for my project?
Start small:
• Use Galxe or Zealy to run a wallet-based campaign
• Analyze wallet cohorts with DappRadar or Footprint
• Use Notifi to send basic wallet alerts
Then, integrate more tools as your needs mature. Most importantly, set goals based on wallet behavior (not clicks or likes).