Manuel Medel
Head of Growth & Marketing · DeFi / Web3 · GTM, Incentive Design & KOL Distribution
Background
Nine years in growth and go-to-market, seven of them scaling DeFi products across perpetuals, spot DEXes, and wallets. I've worked directly with founders, led cross-functional teams, and owned GTM, growth, and incentive design across $500K+ annual budgets with a team of 8. I trade perps daily on the same types of platforms I market, which gives me a practical understanding of what drives acquisition, retention, and volume, from trading rewards and points programs to referral systems and market maker incentives.
Trajectory
TxFlow
Signed top-tier KOLs in the first 60 days, building a distribution channel that produced $1B+ in taker volume and $365K in protocol fees. Own partnership sourcing and commercial terms across KOLs, protocols, and trading counterparties.
Katana
Led marketing for the launch of Katana Perps. Owned the IDEX-to-Katana transition end to end: rebrand, token migration, GTM, and KOL alignment across CT. $3M TVL and 300+ wallet connections on day one through a 0-to-1 trading rewards program built around open interest and taker volume.
IDEX
Led a team of 8 across community, content, moderation, and BD. Built marketing and comms from the ground up across three market cycles. Owned narrative, PR, and crisis comms alongside campaigns and growth. Drove 30,000+ wallet activations and $100M+ in testnet trading volume in a single month, with 70% of those wallets still trading 60 days later.
Grew the community to 70K+ on X, 30K+ Discord, 8K+ Telegram. Designed trading rewards, market maker programs, referral systems, and liquidity vault campaigns. Built ecosystem partnerships with Arbitrum, Berachain, and Polygon, and ran KOL and community collabs across Crypto Twitter. Launched Spill The Alpha (100+ episodes with 60+ KOL guests).
Stellar Development Foundation
Led full GTM for Vibrant wallet and the USDC arrival on Stellar. Built positioning and brand pillars adopted org-wide. Drove emerging market growth in Argentina and Nigeria through onramp partnerships and Vibrant Yield.
AMBCrypto
Drove an 18% lift in platform traffic through coordinated growth strategies with media aggregators and influencers. Established 50+ commercial partnerships across major exchanges, wallets, and protocols, including Bittrex.
Open to Head of Growth and Head of Marketing roles at crypto companies building trading products. Currently Growth at TxFlow. Remote, across US and international hours.
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