---
title: "Vanity Metrics in Crypto Startups That Journalists Discount"
description: "Followers, wallets, TVL snapshots and Discord size: which vanity metrics crypto journalists discount, a simple score to test any number, and what earns trust."
author: "Shilika Jain"
date: "2026-10-28T00:46:50.255+00:00"
tags: ["crypto pr", "pr metrics", "media relations", "web3 marketing", "earned media"]
canonical: "https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/vanity-metrics-crypto-journalists-see-through"
---

# Vanity Metrics in Crypto Startups That Journalists Discount

By [Shilika Jain](https://www.shilikajain.com/authors/shilika-jain) - 10/28/2026

Followers, wallets, TVL snapshots and Discord size: which vanity metrics crypto journalists discount, a simple score to test any number, and what earns trust.

---

# Vanity Metrics in Crypto Startups That Journalists Discount

The vanity metrics crypto journalists discount most are the ones money can move quickly: X followers, Discord and Telegram member counts, total wallets, transaction counts, and a TVL snapshot taken during a rewards program. Reporters give weight to numbers that are hard to buy and easy to verify, like fees paid by users, retained activity after incentives end, named customers and integrations. If a metric would collapse in a quiet month without rewards, assume a reporter will treat it as marketing.

That doesn't make the vanity numbers useless. It makes them the wrong lead.

## Why do crypto startups lean on vanity metrics?

Because they go up. Early-stage teams need something to show investors, the community and the press, and the metrics that respond fastest to effort are the ones a campaign can move: a quest adds followers, a points season adds wallets, a liquidity mining program adds TVL. They're also the numbers your tools put on the front page of the dashboard.

> being a marketer at crypto companies is not at all fancy 🥲
>
> what goes behind is mental tradeoffs to hit your KPIs, humongous amounts of info overload, crazy pressure, keeping abreast w the volatile market, constantly tweaking strategies based on sentiment, getting 1M users 😂😅
>
> [Shilika Jain on X, 10 Oct 2024](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1844271873628176480)

"Getting 1M users" is a joke in that post because everyone in crypto marketing has been handed that target. The pressure is real, and when the KPI is a big round number, teams find the cheapest way to hit it. Journalists know that too, which is why the big round number is the first thing they discount.

## The discount score: three questions for any number

Before a metric goes anywhere near a pitch, I score it with three yes-or-no questions. Each "no" earns a point of discount. The higher the score, the less a reporter will trust it.

1. **Is it expensive to fake?** If a few thousand dollars of quests, rewards or bought engagement could move it meaningfully, answer no.
2. **Can an outsider verify it?** If a reporter can't check it on-chain, on a public dashboard, or with a named third party, answer no.
3. **Would it survive a quiet month?** If the number would fall sharply with no campaign running, answer no.

A score of 0 means the number can lead your pitch. A score of 1 means it can appear with context. A score of 2 or 3 means it belongs in an internal report, not a press conversation.

The test is deliberately crude. It's meant to be run in two minutes by a founder looking at a draft, not by an analyst.

## Which crypto vanity metrics do journalists discount?

This is how the usual suspects score. These are my practitioner judgements, not survey data, and a specific number can score better if you give it the right definition.

| Metric | Expensive to fake? | Verifiable by outsider? | Survives a quiet month? | Discount score | How reporters tend to read it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| X follower count | No | Partly | Usually | 1 to 2 | Audience size, not demand. Often checked for bot patterns. |
| Discord / Telegram members | No | No | Yes, because nobody leaves | 2 to 3 | Sign-ups from past quests. Says little about activity. |
| Total wallets since launch | No | Yes | Only goes up | 1 to 2 | Cumulative, so it hides churn. |
| Transaction count | No | Yes | No | 2 | Easy to script, easy to inflate with low-value actions. |
| TVL snapshot during rewards | No | Yes | No | 2 | Mercenary capital until shown otherwise. |
| FDV or market cap | No | Yes | No | 2 | A price, not a product metric. |
| Campaign impressions | No | No | No | 3 | Marketing reporting, not news. |
| Fees or revenue from users | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | The number reporters ask for most. |
| Users retained after incentives end | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | Shows real demand. |
| Named customers or integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | Checkable and specific. |

Discord size deserves a special mention because founders defend it so hard. A Discord with 80,000 members and 30 people talking each day isn't a community of 80,000. If you want to measure the community properly, I've laid out a scoring method in [how to measure crypto community quality](/blog/crypto-community-quality-vs-size). And if your follower count has a bot problem, that's its own clean-up job, covered in [fake followers on crypto X](/blog/fake-engagement-bot-followers-crypto-x).

## Which numbers earn trust with reporters instead?

The pattern in the bottom rows of that table is consistent: numbers that cost users something, or that a third party can confirm, carry weight.

When I was positioning Fluence co-founder Tom Trowbridge as a DePIN voice, one of the interviews we placed was with CryptoDaily UK at Devconnect Bangkok, on revenue as the key metric for DePIN. That argument carries weight as a story because so much of the category leads with node counts and token metrics. A founder willing to say "judge us on revenue" stands out from a crowd quoting totals.

> The web3/crypto industry won't grow by chasing shiny campaigns & hype quests.
>
> It'll grow when we start building projects that actually make money. Revenue > vibes.
>
> [Shilika Jain on X, 23 Jul 2025](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1947998504049418574)

Numbers that tend to earn trust, roughly in order:

- **Revenue or fees paid by users**, over a stated period.
- **Retained users** after a reward program ended, with the definition of "active".
- **Named partners and customers**, with what they use you for.
- **Repeat usage**: wallets or accounts that returned multiple times without being paid to.
- **Original data you can share in full**, like a survey or report with methodology attached.
- **Concentration-adjusted TVL**: how much stays when you exclude your top depositors and reward-driven deposits.

None of these are as big as the vanity numbers. That's fine. Reporters aren't counting zeros. They're looking for a figure they can print without worrying it'll embarrass them next week.

## How do you turn a vanity metric into a usable one?

You often don't need to drop a vanity metric, just reshape it. Most of them become credible when you attach a time window, a definition and a comparison.

- **X followers** become *engagement from accounts in your category*: replies from builders, investors or reporters you can name.
- **Discord members** become *weekly active posters* and *share of questions about the product versus rewards*.
- **Total wallets** become *wallets active in the last 30 days* and *wallets that returned three or more times*.
- **Transaction count** becomes *transactions above a meaningful size* or *fees generated*.
- **TVL snapshot** becomes *TVL 30 days after rewards dropped* and *share held by the top 10 depositors*.
- **Campaign impressions** become *sign-ups or first actions traced to the campaign*, which is the number you'd want internally anyway.

There's one more step that founders skip: say what the number means. "TVL held at $X a month after rewards ended, which tells us depositors are here for the rates, not the points" is a sentence a reporter can build a paragraph around. A bare number gives them nothing to write.

I go deeper on DeFi specifically in the [DeFi protocol PR playbook](/blog/defi-protocol-pr-playbook-tvl-earned-media), which covers how to talk about TVL without leading with it.

## What does earned PR do for these numbers?

Founders sometimes come to PR hoping coverage will push the vanity metrics up: more followers, more wallets, a TVL bump. Coverage can drive attention, but that isn't what it's for, and it's rarely what it delivers.

> Earned PR ≠ Won't pump your token
> Earned PR ≠ Won't grow your TVL
>
> [Shilika Jain on X, 19 Nov 2024](https://x.com/Shilika_jain/status/1858726846755389463)

The wording in that post is a bit tangled, but the point is that earned PR is not a lever for your token or your TVL. What it builds is credibility with people who decide things: investors doing diligence, partners deciding who to integrate, exchanges reviewing listings, talent choosing where to work. Those people read the coverage and then check the numbers. If the numbers are vanity metrics, the coverage works against you.

That's why, when I run [Web3 PR campaigns](/services/web3-pr-campaigns), metric selection happens before pitching starts. The narrative is only as strong as the weakest number in it.

## When do vanity metrics still have a job?

I don't want to overstate this. Vanity metrics have legitimate uses:

- **Internal tracking.** Follower growth and Discord joins tell you whether a campaign reached people. That's useful to the marketing team, even if it isn't news.
- **Partner and KOL negotiations.** Audience size matters when someone is deciding whether a co-marketing deal is worth their time, though you should still show engagement quality. My [KOL campaign ROI metrics](/blog/crypto-kol-campaign-roi-metrics) piece covers what to measure there.
- **Background in a press kit.** A cumulative wallet count can sit in the "about" section as context, clearly labelled.
- **Category sizing.** If a reporter is writing a trend piece, your totals might help size a sector, provided they're defined.

The cost of ignoring vanity metrics completely is that you can look smaller than a louder competitor for a while. Some investors and listing teams do still glance at follower counts. My view is that you can show those numbers where they belong without making them the story you tell journalists.

## FAQ

### Is daily active wallets a vanity metric?

It depends on how you define active and whether incentives are running. Daily active wallets during a points program score badly; daily active wallets doing a meaningful core action after rewards ended score well. The label matters less than the definition.

### Do journalists check follower counts for bots?

Some do, especially when a small project claims a large audience, and there are third-party tools that estimate fake follower shares. Even when they don't check, a big follower count with thin engagement is easy to spot by scrolling a few posts.

### What metric should a pre-launch crypto startup lead with?

Usually not a metric at all. Lead with the problem, who's using the product in testing, and any named partners or design customers. A pre-launch team quoting big numbers invites more scrutiny than it can survive.

### Should we stop reporting TVL?

No, but stop leading with a snapshot. Report TVL with a time window, how much is reward-driven, and how concentrated it is. That turns a vanity figure into an honest signal about whether capital is staying.

*Want a second opinion on which of your numbers will hold up with reporters? [Get in touch](/contact) and I'll score your current pitch metrics with you.*

---

**Book a 30-min metrics and narrative teardown with Shilika** - https://calendly.com/shilikajain/30min/

Canonical: https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/vanity-metrics-crypto-journalists-see-through