📉 SEO Is Dead. What’s Next for Web3 Founders? Meet AI-SEO

If you're still relying on classic SEO strategies to grow your Web3 startup, you might already be invisible.

In our new video interview, we sit down with Crypto Rank — the team behind cutting-edge AI-driven SEO for crypto projects — to break down what’s changed and how founders are quietly bleeding money by ignoring this shift.

Inside the interview:
🔍 Why traditional SEO fails in Web3 and crypto?
⚙️ How AI-SEO tools are transforming discoverability?
💸 Costly mistakes that drain your budget with 0 ROI
📈 Real startup case studies scaling visibility with AI

💬 Plus: We ask the big question — will AI fully replace SEO by 2026?

This is Part 1 of the series, and it’s a must-watch if you're building in a niche, noisy market like crypto.

🧠 For traction-hungry startups, AI-SEO might be the biggest unlock this year.

👇 Watch the full interview here & drop your take in the comments:
https://youtu.be/k6Z4Nc5rSpk?si=3AEje5jY-4xiBMnd

😡 Avoid Co-Founder Conflicts Before They Start

Too many great startups crash early due to misalignment between co-founders — not the market.

That’s why we’ve added a Founders Agreement Template to our Knowledge Base. A plug-and-play contract written in plain English that helps you:

✅ Define equity splits, roles & responsibilities
✅ Set vesting and IP rules
✅ Handle exits and decision-making
✅ Show investors your team is aligned

🧠 Designed for SaaS, AI, Web3, and crypto startups — globally.

✍️ Just fill it out, review with your team, and sign. Your startup’s future self will thank you.

👉 Download now

🎁 New PERK for Startups: AI-SEO Audit + 25% Off from CryptoRank

Recently, we interviewed with CryptoRank, an AI-SEO team specialising in LLM optimisation for crypto projects, DeFi protocols, and exchanges. They continue to share value with our community: through InnMind, you will receive 25% off LLM optimisation services and a free audit.

Most Web3 teams are invisible in AI search because classic SEO doesn’t help them appear in agent answers. With CryptoRank’s AI-SEO, your startup can rank inside AI agent answers and turn that visibility into qualified leads and customers.

👉 Claim it here.

You can find more attractive deals here. Be discoverable today, unstoppable tomorrow 🚀

🔎 AI-SEO for Web3 Startups: Part 2️⃣ with CryptoRank

This week, we’re closing the AI-SEO topic for Web3 startups. As promised, here is Part 2 of our interview with our friends at Crypto Rank.

📌 Quick refresher on Crypto Rank:
experts in AI-driven SEO for Web3 who break down why traditional SEO no longer works for startups in this space, and how ignoring AI-SEO quietly drains visibility and budget. Their team specialises in getting crypto projects, DeFi protocols, and exchanges to rank inside AI agent answers.

What you’ll learn in Part 2:
▪️5 actionable AI-SEO tactics to scale visibility in Web3
▪️How to align content with search intent using AI
▪️Case studies of crypto startups tripling traffic with AI-SEO
▪️The new role of AI-driven tools in fundraising and investor discovery

If you’re building in Web3, this is not optional. AI-SEO is a growth lever you can deploy today 🚀

▶️ Watch Part 2 now

💭 Question for you:
What’s the biggest challenge you face in making your startup discoverable online? Drop your answer in the comments.

🛑 Stop Cofounder Chaos Before It Starts

Founder breakups quietly kill more startups than market risk. The fix isn’t a 40-page contract; it’s a concise founders agreement that makes hard conversations straightforward and efficient.

We recently announced the Founder Agreement Template in the InnMind Knowledge Base. The new blog post complements that template with context and a step-by-step guide that founders can run immediately.

🧩 The traps that “feel fair” on day one and explode later: 50/50 without vesting, salary asymmetry, etc.
✅ The 10 decisions to lock in now: IP assignment, leaving terms, etc.
⏱️ A 60-minute script to align the team today, plus practical examples you can copy.

🔗 Read the article

➕ Save and share with your cofounder so you can protect the company and the relationship.

Refundable launchpads are killing projects… You have to know it.

A few days back our CEO posted on LinkedIn about how this “refund culture” has become a structural scam in Web3 fundraising. And it exploded.
Founders, market makers, and investors flooded the comments and dms. Almost everyone said the same thing: “Finally, someone said it out loud.”

💬 Projects claim raising $1M on launchpads.
Launchpads take 10%-20% in fees.
90% of «investors» hit “refund” in the first 24 hours after listing.
The project ends up with $0 in the pocket, and no liquidity to survive.
And everyone still calls it «fundraising».🤕

We’re now collecting dozens of real cases for a deep breakdown on the InnMind blog. With data and real stories from founders who actually went through it.

If your project has faced this, share your story in comments. We’d love to include real founder experiences in the research.

📎 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nelli-orlova_launchpad-sales-became-a-structural-scam-activity-7379458168583688192-KviH

🎯 AI-SEO for Web3 Startups: How to Be Found by Users and Investors

AI answers replaced ten blue links. If your project is not inside those answers, users and investors skip you.

We condensed our deep expert interview with Crypto Rank into a time-saving read for Web3 founders. No fluff, only the signals that make AI systems notice your project and surface it in product and investor flows🔎

Inside the article, you will find 5 tactics you can implement quickly and see results fast. Built for speed, clarity, and machine readability. Designed to raise discovery without a big budget.

➕ The same moves help fundraising. Align facts across your site and repos, keep signals fresh, and make classification easy. More accuracy in AI answers. More qualified conversations 🚀

👉 Read the article

💜 Special shoutout to @aimonrado - our subscriber who gave us the first boost to unlock stories, immediately after we asked for it!

We didn’t promise anything…
But hey, we’re genuinely grateful! so we’ve decided to give him access to any premium doc from InnMind’s library, on his choice.

Ping us, Rado, and we’ll hook you up 🙌

Guys 👉 still wanna boost the channel?
It takes 1 click, costs nothing, and we do notice 👀
https://www.tg-me.com/innmind?boost

🎯 Influencer Campaigns That Actually Work in 2025

KOL campaigns fail when goals and channels don’t match. Too many founders burn budget on big names and last-minute posts, then call influencer marketing dead. It isn’t. It needs a real plan.

We invited George, a Web3 KOL operator with 4 years in the field, to share on how to build influencer campaigns that actually work.

What you will learn:
• What makes a KOL campaign succeed (or flop)
• How to find real influencers vs. fake metrics
• Common mistakes Web3 startups make
• The evolution of influencer marketing in 2025

▶️ Watch the interview

📌Bonus for founders

Reach 250+ verified crypto KOLs with direct Telegram and email contacts to power your token launch, fundraising, or growth campaign. Filter by channel, region, and niche to find high-fit influencers fast while bypassing agencies and dead links.

👉 Download now and get a free 30-minute CMO consultation to plan your outreach

🫠 Market mood lately

(you aren’t alone)

PS: If you're still building - you’re already ahead!

📽 Cut video bottlenecks, start with $15 in HeyGen credits

Video editing eats sprint time and budget. Founders need ship-ready content, not endless retakes.

New in InnMind Perks Club: HeyGen for Startups

🎥 HeyGen is an AI-powered video creation platform that transforms scripts into studio-quality avatar videos, complete with multilingual dubbing and accurate lip sync.

Why founders use it:
▪️ Speed: script to avatar video in minutes
▪️ Global reach: instant dubbing with lip sync
▪️ Consistency: on brand avatars, voiceovers, templates and brand kit
▪️ Real use cases: demos, onboarding, investor updates, ads, FAQs

💎 Perk: +$15 in HeyGen credits on any paid plan via InnMind

▶️ Unlock the perk now

Launchpads are f*cking founders, and we’re done pretending it’s normal 🤬

We’re publishing an investigation next week with real cases, raw stories, and expert takes. If you’ve been through it: refundable sales, delayed payouts, refund chaos, shady “non-refundable” pads - we wanna hear from you 👇

Drop your take here (3 min)
You can stay anon or get quoted (with a link to your project/site/X or InnMind profile).

This piece will hit hard, and we want it to include real voices from the trenches.

🚨 KOL marketing is where most Web3 teams bleed budget in 2025 — and it’s time to fix that.

Our newest blog breaks down how to run influencer campaigns that actually drive results — not just vanity metrics.

We teamed up with George — a veteran Web3 KOL operator — to cut through the BS and show what actually works.

▪️ Think creator-fueled funnels, not quick shills.
▪️ Match format to stage: YouTube for education, X for fast triggers.
▪️ Use KOLs to amplify, not replace, your core marketing engine.

💡 And most importantly:
we dive into influencer marketing trends in 2025-26 — from SocialFi to smarter tooling and fading hype cycles.

Stop burning budget and start getting results 💪

➡️ Read the full breakdown

📊 Web3 VC Trends Q3 2025: From Crypto Winter to Strategic Capital

Based on the new “Q3 2025 Crypto M&A and Financing Report” by Architect Partners, the Web3 investment space is showing signs of maturity — and it confirms exactly what we’ve been highlighting here on InnMind.

💸 Deal activity? Still strong. The number of VC rounds is steady.
💰 Capital raised? Down ~40%. Why? A whopping $90B shifted into Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategies — a rising trend where companies hold crypto as balance sheet assets. It soaked up both private and public capital.

🌱 But this isn’t a bearish signal. It’s the market getting more selective.

What’s winning investor attention right now:
▪️ Real-world payment use cases (esp. stablecoin infra)
▪️ Developer & B2B infrastructure
▪️ Capital-efficient projects with measurable traction

Big names like Erebor ($250M) and Fnality ($134.8M) show VCs still write large checks — just not for hype. Projects need revenue, users, and product-market validation. “Build-first, fundraise-second” is the new normal.

💡 What it means for Web3 founders:
This market rewards quality. If you’re building in payments, infra, or dev tools — and you can prove usage — now is a great time to raise. If not, refine first. LPs are slowly returning, and exits are opening up liquidity for the next investment cycle.

📣 Founders — you're not late, you're just in the next chapter. Keep building. Smart capital is circling back.

Take it: ~ 350 VC investors that do NOT require warm intros: https://airtable.com/appG2aMBFerhjf7kn/shr7wzvJWV6Fl17PV/tblaahhCCc2v0065Q/viwdm9nLc4Aj3sHJO for cold outreach.

They are investing across various verticals. Use filter to find those backing web3, crypto and AI projects.

While Others Cut Back, These 5 DeFi Startups Build Forward 🚀

📉 Crypto VC capital dropped 40% in Q3’25.
📊 Global fintech investment stayed strong at ~$11B.
The message is clear: the market is consolidating around real utility.

DeFi isn’t dead — it’s evolving.
And while most projects fade, some are quietly building infrastructure for what’s next. From AI-driven trading to RWA tokenisation and crypto-native banking.

We spotlight 5 early-stage startups from the InnMind ecosystem that are gaining traction and solving real pain points in DeFi.

🔎 Full breakdown inside — traction, token models, and why these projects matter right now:
👉 Read the article here

🧠 AI is getting smarter. But who’s keeping it honest?

The State of Crypto 2025 report dives deep into the emerging alliance between crypto and AI, and it’s not just hype.

After ChatGPT launched in late 2022, the share of crypto startups working in “AI x Crypto” doubled: jumping from 12–16% to 25%+. Founders aren’t sleeping on this trend. Investors neither 🏄

AI may be stealing the spotlight right now, but crypto isn’t going anywhere. In fact, сrypto’s becoming essential infrastructure for AI’s next phase, especially in areas where current systems fall short:
▪️ verifying humans (proof-of-human)
▪️enabling payments for autonomous agents (on crypto rails forecasted by Gartner to power a $30T market by 2030)
▪️ managing IP rights via open ledgers
▪️decentralising compute to reduce dependence on a handful of tech giants.

Because that dependence is already extreme🤦: OpenAI and Anthropic control 88% of AI-native revenue. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google own 63% of cloud infrastructure. And NVIDIA supplies 94% of the GPUs powering AI data centres.

Crypto offers a path to rebalance that power structure — if we build it right.

🤔 So be honest: do you believe crypto has a real chance to counterbalance Big AI — or just open-sourcing our way into another monopoly?

Tell us in the comments 👇