2026 DeFi User Behavior Report: Discovery on X, Data Validation, Retention of Real Earnings, How to Market.

Written by: Pink Brains

Translated by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

Over the past three years, we have collaborated with more than 35 leading DeFi projects to handle their marketing efforts. We found that the most effective marketing campaigns do not start from the perspective of the project but rather from the user's perspective: how users discover products, how they build trust, and how they truly engage.

Note: Pink Brains is a marketing studio focused on DeFi, providing services such as KOL marketing, content creation (threads, analysis), and more to DeFi projects.

The typical approach in most crypto marketing guides is: select KOLs, allocate budgets, launch campaigns, and track impressions.

We have completely reversed this process. Instead of discussing tactics first, we study user behavior: How do DeFi users discover new protocols? What convinces them to try? What keeps them around?

How do DeFi users discover new protocols?

Crypto users typically first discover opportunities on Twitter, then go to platforms like DefiLlama, DeBank, Artemis, Token Terminal, Moni, etc., to validate data, check the protocol’s official documentation, and finally consider depositing funds.

The discovery process is socially driven, while the decision-making process is data-driven.

The actual path usually looks like this:

A trusted account posts about a new perpetual DEX—this post rarely triggers users to deposit immediately.

Users will first check the project’s official account, browse posts and reviews from other KOLs to learn about trading volume, TVL, incentive plans, and other data, then quickly skim documents and guides, and finally make a small test deposit.

That X post merely introduced the protocol to users; it is the content from KOLs and real data that truly drives the decision.

This is why X remains the core battleground for DeFi: it is where narratives are formed, vulnerabilities are exposed in real-time, and where founders and researchers engage in heated debates in the comment sections.

The practical takeaway for protocol teams is that the objective during the discovery phase is not to pursue viral hits, but to be mentioned by accounts that those data-driven users already trust, and to ensure that all data can withstand scrutiny when users check. A strong mention on X, when paired with scant TVL or weak audit pages, cannot convert truly valuable users.

What are DeFi users focusing on in 2026?

This year, DeFi users are primarily attracted to several clear themes:

• New DeFi trends (tokenization, perpetual contracts, RWA, pre-IPO perpetuals, and the crypto × AI wave)
• Airdrops that require real contributions but come with higher risks
• Earnings supported by real income
• Value capture tokens directly tied to product usage
• New types of trading venues

The commonality is: verifiable mechanisms, rather than marketing language.

New narratives: Perpetual contracts, RWA, crypto × AI

What people are trading is changing.

The HIP-3 upgrade from Hyperliquid opened up permissionless listings for perpetual contracts, giving rise to over 100 RWA markets (stocks, commodities, indices, forex, and even pre-IPO assets), with a total trading volume exceeding $130 billion. By the end of March 2026, RWA markets account for over 90% of HIP-3's open interest.

@Ostium (a perpetual DEX focused on RWA on Arbitrum) proposed the "perpification" theory: a perpetual contract only requires a price oracle and liquidity pool, without the need for a complete tokenization stack. This allows traditional market exposure to be recorded on-chain faster than tokenized spot assets.

@tradexyz and @ventuals are deeply engaged in commodities and forex on Hyperliquid; the Cerebras pre-IPO perpetual contract on Trade.xyz almost perfectly "priced" the stock hours before its official opening on the NASDAQ.

Another major narrative is crypto × AI. Users are not focused on the narrative but rather on agentic payments and token incentive mechanisms aligned with AI.

• @opentensor ($TAO) completed its first halving at the end of 2025 and currently operates over 120 active subnets, generating real demand for income.
• @virtuals_io (VIRTUAL) reported over $400 million in agentic GDP and $60 million in protocol revenue in the first quarter of 2026, deploying over 17,000 agents, and co-authored cross-chain agent commerce standards with the Ethereum Foundation.
• @NEAR Protocol and @AskVenice occupy core positions in private reasoning and data sovereignty.

Additionally, early connections in the crypto × robotics field (such as @xmaquina, Robotics Capital Markets) are also beginning to emerge.

This track is volatile with many bad assets, but users genuinely care about the revenue and actual usage of top projects.

Airdrops, but the threshold has significantly increased

Airdrops remain an important driver, and most yield farmers are still looking for the next HYPE, but the days of easy gains are over.

Current projects increasingly demand real contributions: sustainable trading, real liquidity provision, educational content for the community, etc. Sybil filtering has become standard, with tokens often being immediately sold off after TGE.

Point systems pay more attention to generated fees rather than locked capital; testnet rewards emphasize sustained, qualitative participation rather than simply transaction counts.

Real Yield

Users can now clearly distinguish between "earnings from real income" and "earnings produced through inflation," clearly preferring the former.

Real yield can take many forms, but only a few are truly meaningful: fees from economic activities such as trading, lending, funding rates, liquidation, infrastructure usage fees, and RWA-supported earnings.

Yield trading platforms like @pendle_fi, and vaults operated by risk management firms such as @veda_labs, @gauntlet_xyz, @MEVCapital, @SteakhouseFi, along with on-chain fund allocators like @sparkdotfi have become the main entry points for capital deployment, attracting more liquidity into fixed income strategies based on real yield sources.

For example, @ethena's sUSDe generates yield through delta-neutral basis trading, with supply nearing $5.8 billion.

@SkyEcosystem's sUSDS pays around 4-4.5% yield, supported by RWA collateral and stability fees—S&P even awarded a credit rating to the DeFi protocol Sky for the first time.

The overall trend is shifting from a market relying on "creating yield through inflation" to one that "imports and allocates yield from real sources."

Value Capture Token Economics

In addition to yield, users are increasingly favoring tokens whose value is directly tied to product adoption—typically through buybacks, buy-and-burn, supply contraction, and protocol revenue sharing.

Hyperliquid's HYPE is a typical case: its Assistance Fund uses approximately 99% of trading fee revenue for open market buybacks, with total buyback amounts exceeding $1.16 billion. Since TGE, it has bought back and burned 4.45% of total supply.

Venice's VVV ties demand to staked AI reasoning computing power, using part of the protocol's income to buy back and burn VVV, currently destroying about 40% of supply, with a price increase of 400% this year.

Bittensor's TAO adopts a Bitcoin-like halving mechanism, shifting from inflation to scarcity.

The patterns sought by users are similar: tokens must be closely linked to the activities generated by the product, with activity increases bringing value rather than dilution.

New Types of Trading Venues

Finally, attention is expanding to new types of trading venues:

• Prediction markets (Polymarket and Kalshi have massive cumulative trading volume by 2025)
• Trading markets for physical cards and collectibles
• Crypto-supported gamification (Crypto iGaming)

While these are more speculative, they indeed bring real trading volume and revenue.

Logan Paul publicly stated that there are no stocks in his portfolio, only Pokémon cards. By 2026, the Pokémon card market has reached $75 billion (compared to less than $15 billion in 2016).

@Collector_Crypt (a card trading market on Solana) has risen to become the second largest revenue-generating dApp on Solana, with daily revenue reaching $1.9 million.

GameFi is outdated, but GambleFi is quietly exploding. Total revenue from crypto gambling reached $81.4 billion in 2024, five times that of 2022. In the first quarter of 2025, crypto betting volume reached $26 billion, nearly double from the same period last year. Non-KYC, global coverage, and provably fair mechanisms are driving a new wave of on-chain gamification.

@Stake, @shufflecom, and other centralized crypto iGaming, as well as provably fair on-chain iGaming like @nardotbet, while rarely mentioned by DeFi KOLs, are seeing robust real transactions.

The commonality in these areas is that users can independently verify their appeal. Interest comes from the mechanism itself rather than marketing language.

What can keep DeFi users around?

DeFi users will continue to use a protocol when it is genuinely useful in real life, can generate profits, and create value for token holders. At the same time, it must remain reliable amidst market fluctuations.

The core difference is that protocols retaining capital rely on trust, distribution, and reliability, rather than temporary APY or TVL.

Real-World Use Cases

The strongest reason for users to stay is simple: the protocol is genuinely useful in daily life. Products like crypto cards, neobanks, vaults, etc., give users a reason to remain in the ecosystem beyond speculation.

Ether.fi Cash is a good example: users earn cashback when spending while also earning staking rewards. The specific rate is not important; what matters is "the daily financial activity itself becomes a reason to stay in the ecosystem."

The same logic applies to crypto neobanks and fund allocators: they have embedded themselves in users’ regular financial habits, rather than just being platforms users visit occasionally for yields.

Token Economics Reflecting Real Products

When tokens genuinely capture the value generated by products, users are more willing to stay rather than rely on narratives.

The textbook case for 2026 is HYPE. Its Assistance Fund allocates 99% of trading fee revenue for open market buybacks. Bitwise’s CIO remarked that the design of this token makes growth in platform activity directly benefit holders. This is a value cycle that users can personally verify, thus continuing to attract attention rather than relying solely on short-term market hype during the listing.

@AskVenice's VVV offers another specific model: staking VVV allows proportional access to daily AI reasoning computing power on the platform, and locking enables the minting of DIEM (representing $1 daily API credit). Venice has burned over 42% of initial supply and significantly reduced inflation. Demand comes entirely from actual usage.

Airdrops and Incentives, but Not Empty Talk

Airdrops can still draw users back, but the era of easy gains has essentially ended. Projects are rewarding actual usage more and are strictly filtering out Sybil participants.

@monad directly skipped traditional point systems and instead rewards real contributors. Its testnet airdrop is based on five contributor tracks and employs robust anti-Sybil measures, ultimately rewarding only 5,500 wallets for community building, support, content creation, and ecosystem growth.

Point systems are still difficult to execute well. A recent example is MegaETH's Terminal plan: launched in April 2026 with TGE, an eight-week reward campaign was terminated early just three weeks later (on May 21).

Even well-designed plans can struggle to convert short-term activities into long-term retained users.

How should DeFi projects retain users?

DeFi retention relies on the synergy of four elements:

• A sufficiently excellent, daily usable product experience
• Responsive customer support
• Token economics that align long-term with community interests
• Community building that extends beyond TG and Discord (product experience, support, token economics, strategic community building)

What types of KOLs should DeFi projects collaborate with?

DeFi KOLs can be broadly divided into four categories: educators, content creators, airdrop practitioners, and domain experts.

Each category is suitable for different stages of the user journey. Treating them as interchangeable "exposure tools" is a common and costly mistake.

What DeFi KOL content performs best?

The best performing DeFi content tends to be specific and verifiable: on-chain credentials, step-by-step dissection of strategy threads, balanced protocol analysis, and timely interpretations of vulnerabilities or new mechanisms.

Underperforming content is typically vague, undisclosed information, or unverifiable.

Common Mistakes in DeFi KOL Marketing

• Using creators who do not understand the product
• Generalized content (vague phrases like "revolutionary" or "game-changing")
• Audience mismatches
• Over-reliance on a few top KOLs (concentration risk)
• False exposure
• One-time promotions instead of building long-term relationships
• Neglecting product readiness

Conclusion

The most effective DeFi marketing plans are those that truly mirror actual user behavior: discovery comes from trusted voices, interest comes from verifiable mechanisms, retention comes from robust token economics and product design, rather than mere marketing language.

The best-performing protocols will not solely rely on internal marketing. KOLs generate awareness, research validates arguments, users share real results, and ultimately persistent on-chain data proves the product's value far exceeds incentives.