Manuel Medel
Head of Marketing · DeFi / Web3 · GTM, Community Growth & KOL Strategy · AI-Powered Marketing Operator
Background
Six years leading marketing in crypto, across perpetuals exchanges, a wallet, and a media outlet. Reported straight to founders, managed teams, and owned GTM, community, comms, and incentive design with $500K+ annual budgets.
I understand DeFi, communities, and how traders behave. That's where the marketing systems come from: trading rewards, points programs, market maker incentives, referral mechanics. Built from watching the timeline and the order book at the same time.
Experience
Katana Perps
Owned the IDEX-to-Katana transition: rebrand, token migration, GTM launch, 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
Built marketing and comms from the ground up across three market cycles. Owned narrative, PR, and crisis comms alongside campaigns and growth. Grew the community to 70K+ on X, 30K+ Discord, 8K+ Telegram. Designed trading rewards, market maker programs, referral systems, and liquidity vault campaigns. Launched Spill The Alpha (100+ episodes, 60+ KOL guests). Ran the Golden Checkmark campaign that lifted brand impressions 50% in a month.
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.
Trading
Daily DeFi user. Perps trader. Constant tester of whatever's shipping. The best marketing comes from being a real user of what you're selling, and sitting on the other side of the order book teaches you more about traders than any deck.
AI
I've been using AI tools longer than most marketers have known they exist. Lately I spend a lot of my time wiring Claude, GPT, n8n, and Midjourney into workflows that do the work of a small team. Content, creative, research, scheduling. The goal isn't replacing people. It's freeing them up to do the work that actually matters.
Past work
Campaigns, decks, graphics, and content I either built or directed. View the work →
Contact
Best way to reach me is a DM.