Promotion of Cryptocurrency in the Russian Market

Having appeared in the global financial market in 2009, the cryptocurrency has earned the status of one of the most controversial digital assets. Interest in it is growing, while the opinions of experts drastically differ. This is largely due to dollar fluctuations in the market and other economic and political changes that have occurred during this period.

For example, in 2017, a new digital art NFT appeared in the world, becoming a popular asset for many art collectors and more. According to the analytical platform Chainalysis, in 2021 investors made at least $44.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions in ERC-721 and ERC-1155 contracts related to NFT trading platforms and collections. At the same time, in Russia, interest in this crypto-environment has only begun to grow since 2021. Inna Bazhenova, co-founder of The Art Exchange, an art investment platform, said in an interview with Izvestia that the share of Russian users in the NFT market is about 5%. Which can be considered a considerable figure, given the total amount of NFT investments in the global market.

Another promising direction in the use of cryptocurrency is the so-called decentralized online games (GameFi), in which users can make real profits. At the same time, their crypto-assets do not belong to the developers and are stored on personal blockchains, and the auction for the sale of gaming rewards is located directly on the gaming platform.

On top of that, some major brands have started accepting payments with cryptocurrencies. For example, Rolex watches, Gucci clothes, or Alienware game software can be paid with bitcoins. Also, crypto-investors have massive opportunities in acquiring real estate.

And of course, the interest in cryptocurrency is largely associated with the possibility of earning and promising investments, including for the Russian audience. According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions of Russian citizens, according to rough estimates, is about $5 billion a year. In addition, Russian consumers are among the most active users of online platforms that carry out cryptocurrency transactions.

So where Do Russian Investors Buy Cryptocurrency?

Special Services

According to CoinMarketCap, there are currently over 300 crypto trading platforms offering various crypto products. Some of the most popular marketplaces for the Russian audience in this sector appeared Quantum AI, Capital.com, Binance, Libertex.

All services differ in their functionality.

Quantum AI offers interest-free trades, currency security and protection, advice for new investors, but requires a high minimum deposit of 220 Euros.

Capital.com has a huge market of various cryptocurrencies (more than 3, 000 markets) in the CFD system with the possibility of interest-free transactions and a minimum deposit of $20.

Binance is a platform with its own BNB cryptocurrency. In addition, the developers offer many BTC/USDT, BTC/ETH trades and some micro-cap markets. Funds are protected by two-factor authentication and a list of trusted IP/devices. Moreover, the platform has a backup SAFU insurance bank in case of a hack. Due to all this, Binance presents itself as a service for active investors who carry out currency transactions on an ongoing basis. However, the platform is not “interest-free” like the previous ones, and will require a commission depending on the region and type of transaction.

On Libertex, investors have the opportunity to lend. The developers of the service call this service “2:1 leverage”. For example, if a user wants to buy cryptocurrency for $200, then it is enough for him to pay $100 for the first installment, and reimburse the rest after a certain period. At the same time, all negative accounts are reliably protected by certificates of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Cost of the minimum deposit on the platform is 100 Euros.

In other words, the potential audience in this financial sector has a wide range of products to choose from. Accordingly, the question of the competent promotion of cryptocurrency for many sites, brokers, and other players in the market is always relevant.

Especially if we are talking about advertising campaigns in the Russian market, where most of the effective services have become inaccessible to advertisers. For example, YouTube with popular channels Chris Dunn, aantonop, Kopeechka v koshelke, Roman Tomera, etc. As well as Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta (note: recognized as an extremist organization in Russia in 2022).

RMAA experts suggest paying attention to several social networks that offer good opportunities for promoting crypto products in the Russian market. At the same time, it should be taken into account that in Russia, cryptocurrency advertising is officially allowed UNLESS it acts as a means of payment for goods and services (The Law “On Digital Assets”). In other cases, advertising content can be freely broadcast to various resources. Let's go further into the matter.

Telegram

According to a study by the largest channel exchange Telega.in, cryptocurrency became the most expensive advertisement in the messenger in 2021 and ranked third among thematic categories in terms of advertising turnover. The increase in its value was influenced by the capitalization of the crypto market (an increase of 3 times by $2.22 trillion), as well as the specifics of Russian legislation in this sector.

The effectiveness of the messenger in terms of placing advertising content about cryptocurrency can be explained by the following factors.

Firstly, Telegram has no restrictions regarding the promotion of cryptocurrency products (except for the aforementioned paragraph on the prohibition of paying for goods and services). For example, Facebook or Instagram (currently recognized as extremist organizations in Russia) will ask the advertiser for one of the 27 international licenses for the currency, and only then decide on the publication of content.

Secondly, Telegram allows you to broadcast advertising content using various tools. Here you can agree on paid integration with popular Telegram channels about cryptocurrencies, as well as set up an advertising campaign to promote the product based on the characteristics of the target audience (language, country, key interests, etc.).

In addition, the Telegram audience in many ways is potential for crypto products. According to Karen Kazaryan, Director General of the Internet Research Institute, Telegram subscribers may be defined as young, advanced users, among whom there are many IT specialists. All this together gives a good conversion in the presence of a competent marketing strategy and effective content with a high degree of expertise.

In other words, Telegram is a popular resource for promoting cryptocurrency products. Besides, the messenger allows you to use various marketing approaches, and also does not have any “severe” restrictions on the part of developers regarding the placement of crypto advertising.

Due to above reasons, there is a huge competition of advertising content on the platform, including in the cryptocurrency environment. Therefore, we recommend that you also consider other promotion services that are present in the Russian market.

Yandex.Zen

In 2021, the platform launched a creator support program that allows you to monetize your content. Of course, the service has become interesting to many Russian users. In September 2021, the monthly audience of the resource reached 22.2 million users over 12 years old (according to Mediascope). The developers are confident that new monetization tools will allow Zen to compete with such popular social networks, like Telegram, YouTube, TikTok and VKontakte.

This is due not only to the possibility of earning from publications, but also due to the broadcasting of posts of various types. On Yandex.Zen, you can create your own channel with videos, articles (up to 4,000 characters), images, and more. Moreover, the content can be “filtered” depending on the type.

If we talk about advertising crypto products in Zen, it is officially allowed, but with some restrictions (like any other advertising that affects the financial sector). It is strictly impossible:

• to guarantee quick earnings;
• to offer prospects of successful transactions and increase in income;
• make references to success stories;
• claim that cryptocurrency transactions do not contain risks.

Besides, the advertiser will need special documents/licenses that allow cryptocurrency activities (mining, dealer and brokerage, etc.).

If all requirements are met, then the campaign can be launched. It, in turn, will be more of a advisory-news nature (taking into account the requirements), so great attention should be paid to the level of content expertise. As in the case of integration with Telegram.

Along with other social networks, Zen offers various options for marketing integrations.

The first of them is the promotion of content due to its popularity and competent targeting. Moreover, targeting can be done manually (gender, age, devices, regions) or you can use an automatic algorithm configured to search for an interested audience on other channels.

The second method concerns paid integration with Zen channels chosen by the advertiser. At the moment, the platform has a fairly large number of those on the cryptocurrency subject. The most popular of them are CryptocurrencyInvestmentsTrading, Bankiros.ru, 2Bitcoins.ru, etc.

Like Telegram, these tools have their advantages and disadvantages. In the first case, the advertiser will not have the opportunity to select specific Zen channels (the system integrates advertising only according to the target audience parameters), and in the second case, it will take considerable time to independently agree on paid integration with others (there is no guarantee that the answer will be positive).

On the other hand, there are fewer competitors on Yandex.Zen, since the platform has just begun to develop its advertising capabilities. Therefore, when creating a competent marketing strategy and high-quality content, there are quite good prospects for attracting a potential audience. Especially for cryptocurrency products, advertising of which has its own characteristics, which can be “spectacularly” broadcast in various Zen formats.

VKontakte

Following the general crypto trends, another Russian social network VKontakte has also started supporting blockchain services. And more! According to technical director Aleksander Tobol, the resource plans to successfully integrate in the NFT field.

“Platforms and blockchain have already appeared. And there is not enough product history to collect all this and move it to users. And this is exactly our task, to provide the ability to download content, easily create an NFT token, and then place it on the exchange.”

VKontakte cryptocurrency advertising was allowed in 2017 with a “set” of minimum requirements regarding features of promoting financial services.

“Advertising of cryptocurrencies should be reliable and conscientious, without baseless guarantees. Ads should not violate the rest of the VKontakte advertising rules. Entries with guarantees of “quick and passive earnings”, promises to get rich on cryptocurrency or suspicious success stories will be rejected.”

At the same time, VKontakte does not require any additional certificates or licenses for cryptocurrency activities. But, again, mentioning the features of the financial sector, platform administrators will definitely ask the advertiser for at least the name of the person providing the services. If all requirements are successfully implemented, then the service allows you to broadcast content through targeted advertising or integration with communities.

In both cases, VKontakte offers various ways to conduct an advertising campaign, like other social networks. For example, a market platform (internal service of VKontakte) helps to find communities for campaign integration, and targeted advertising can be placed in any area of the site with a button to go to the site or in other formats. Moreover, targeting has an expanded selection of the following indicators: geo (country, city), demographics (gender, age, marital status), interests (interests, communities, activities), as well as a retargeting function that allows you to “capture” an audience that is already interacting with you on other resources.

In addition, the advertiser has the opportunity to create a store of goods within the service with a brief description of the benefits and a quick transaction. In the field of cryptocurrencies, this tool can be effective in promoting exchanges, applications, training courses, as well as the direct sale of cryptocurrencies within the platform.

Let's Sum It Up

Despite special restrictions affecting the advertising of financial products, the promotion of cryptocurrency in the Russian market can be successfully implemented on social platforms such as Telegram, Yandex.Zen and VKontakte.

Each of these resources has a large selection of marketing tools aimed at competent campaign targeting. However, at the same time, it should be taken into account that cryptocurrency advertising will be more effective if there is a high level of expertise of the message and the credibility of the source. Since the audience interested in financial products is more loyal to content similar to the “advice” format and negatively perceives intrusive advertising on social networks.

RMAA experts will help you understand these issues in order to create a competent advertising strategy to promote your crypto product on the Russian market.

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