--- title: "Most Crypto Companies Have an Explanation Problem" description: "Why narrative, not technology, decides which crypto projects get users and press, with chain examples and a practical way to build and repeat your own." author: "Shilika Jain" date: "2026-10-15T03:37:15.777704+00:00" tags: ["narrative", "positioning", "crypto pr", "messaging", "web3 marketing", "field-notes"] canonical: "https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/crypto-explanation-problem-narrative" --- # Most Crypto Companies Have an Explanation Problem By [Shilika Jain](https://www.shilikajain.com/authors/shilika-jain) - 10/15/2026 Why narrative, not technology, decides which crypto projects get users and press, with chain examples and a practical way to build and repeat your own. --- # Most Crypto Companies Have an Explanation Problem Most crypto companies that struggle for users and coverage do not have a weak product. They have a product nobody can explain in one sentence. Narrative is the fix: a short, repeatable idea of what you stand for, said the same way by everyone around you until the market says it back. This piece covers how to build one. ## What is an explanation problem in crypto? In June 2026 I wrote the line this article is named after: > Most crypto companies don't have a product problem, but they have an explanation problem. Brilliant crypto products struggle to gain traction, not because the technology isn't good enough, but because the value isn't communicated clearly enough to customers, investors, and the media! > > [Shilika Jain on X, 19 Jun 2026](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/2067953205183754459) Those three audiences fail in different ways. A customer cannot tell what the product does for them. An investor cannot repeat the pitch to a partner. A journalist cannot find a story inside a feature list. The product is the same in all three rooms. The explanation is what is missing. A few signs that you have this problem: - Your homepage describes the architecture, not the outcome for the user. - Five people on your team describe the company in five different ways. - Every announcement needs three paragraphs of background before it makes sense. - People who like the product still cannot tell a friend what it is. The first repair is usually the cheapest one. > If you stop using technical jargons, half of your user onboarding problem is solved! > > [Shilika Jain on X, 31 Oct 2023](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1719421944091824239) Jargon feels precise to the team that wrote it. To everyone else it is a reason to close the tab. ## Do narratives still matter, or are they dead? Every cycle someone announces that narratives are over and only fundamentals count. I disagreed in March 2023 and I still do. > People say that narratives are dead but for most users narratives hit on a subconscious level. Here are a couple of examples: @0xPolygon for low fees, cheaper txns and roping in web2 brands. @arbitrum for scalability. @solana for gaming. @Scroll_ZKP for dev experience. > > [Shilika Jain on X, 14 Mar 2023](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1635668279258742786) Those were my associations at the time, and yours may differ today. The point holds either way. Each of those chains shipped far more than one feature, yet each one occupied a single slot in the mind of someone who never opened its docs. A narrative is what remains after the detail has been forgotten. That matters because most users, and most reporters, choose with a shortcut. Nobody benchmarks ten chains before picking one. They go with the name already attached to the thing they care about. If your project is not attached to anything, you are not on the list when the choice gets made, however good the engineering is. ## Why does narrative decide who gets press coverage? Journalists cover stories. A feature release is not a story unless it fits into a larger idea the reader already cares about. This is why earned media is so hard for teams that skip positioning. > If you can't understand narratives and how product positioning works, earned PR is Achilles heel for you > > [Shilika Jain on X, 24 Oct 2025](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1981641625161044001) In June 2026 I published a marketing teardown of Tangem, a hardware wallet brand with a strong product and a big opportunity. My suggestion was about framing, not features: if I ran the marketing, I would stop selling hardware wallets and start selling ownership. The real competition is not another wallet. It is the belief that people do not need self-custody at all. I closed that teardown with the principle behind it: > Most crypto companies think PR = announcements. The best brands create narratives so powerful that every announcement becomes news. > > [Shilika Jain on X, 4 Jun 2026](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/2062437697978008001) With a narrative in place, a partnership, a report or a product update is one more chapter in a story the reporter already follows. Without one, each announcement starts from zero. If you are deciding where to put effort, my guides on [crypto media relations](/playbook/crypto-media-relations-guide-2026) and [op-eds versus press releases](/playbook/op-eds-vs-press-releases) go deeper on what editors respond to. ## How do I build a narrative for my project? I work through it in this order. 1. **Name the problem you are fighting, not the product you are selling.** In the Tangem teardown the enemy was not a rival wallet. It was the idea that custody is someone else's job. A narrative needs a tension, and a feature list has none. 2. **Pick one idea.** Low fees, or developer experience, or ownership. Not all three. Back in 2022 I wrote that the job is to find a balance between market trends and how you want users to perceive your project. Lean too far towards the trend and you sound like everyone else. Ignore it and nobody is listening. 3. **Write it in plain words.** If a smart person outside crypto cannot repeat it after hearing it once, it is not finished. 4. **Back it with proof you own.** One of my Tangem suggestions was an industry report on self-custody adoption, because, as I put it there, "If you own the data, you ace the narrative." Original data, a recurring index or a strong point of view gives the media a reason to come back to you. 5. **Do this before you chase users.** My advice from December 2022 has not changed: before you look to acquire users, work on positioning and awareness. Acquisition spend on top of unclear positioning buys traffic that does not convert. There is a fuller framework in my [Web3 narrative and positioning playbook](/playbook/web3-narrative-positioning-strategy-2026). ## How do I get the narrative to stick? By repeating it, and by getting other people to repeat it. > The easiest way to create a narrative is to have your inner and outer circle repeat the same thing on X. I'll go first: @myosin_xyz is the best web3 marketing network. > > [Shilika Jain on X, 2 Dec 2025](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1995782632823816319) The inner circle is your founders, team, investors and advisors. The outer circle is your community, partners and customers. Give all of them the same single line and put it everywhere it can live: - Founder and company bios on X - The website headline - The first slide of the deck - The boilerplate at the bottom of every press release - The first answer in every podcast and interview It will feel repetitive to you long before the market has heard it once. Keep going. The alternative is that someone else describes you, and their version becomes the record. > It's very important to control your story and actively shape it before it's lost! > > [Shilika Jain on X, 10 Feb 2023](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1623987776730574848) Founders carry most of this weight, which is why I treat [founder profiling](/services/founder-profiling) as part of narrative work and build it into [Web3 PR campaigns](/services/web3-pr-campaigns) from the start. ## What if it really is a product problem? Sometimes it is. A narrative makes a good product legible. It cannot make an unwanted product wanted. > Before you question your marketing efforts, please question your PMF! > > [Shilika Jain on X, 8 Nov 2023](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1722304419633541450) A quick test: if the people who do understand the product keep using it, you have an explanation problem and everything above applies. If they understand it and still leave, fix the product first. ## Posts this piece is built on - [19 Jun 2026: Most crypto companies don't have a product problem](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/2067953205183754459) - [31 Oct 2023: If you stop using technical jargons](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1719421944091824239) - [14 Mar 2023: people say that narratives are dead](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1635668279258742786) - [24 Oct 2025: if you can't understand narratives](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1981641625161044001) - [4 Jun 2026: Marketing teardown series 1, first up is Tangem](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/2062437697978008001) - [23 Mar 2022: The power of setting up right narratives](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1506517821047844867) - [7 Dec 2022: before you even look to acquire users](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1600501691329417216) - [2 Dec 2025: the easiest way to create a narrative](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1995782632823816319) - [10 Feb 2023: It's very important to control your story](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1623987776730574848) - [8 Nov 2023: Before you question your marketing efforts](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1722304419633541450) *If your product is strong and the story is not landing, [send me your one-line pitch](/contact) and I will show you where the explanation breaks.* --- **Book a 30-min teardown with Shilika** - https://calendly.com/shilikajain/30min/ Canonical: https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/crypto-explanation-problem-narrative