Refer DeFi Intel, earn 30% recurring for 12 months
Bring us a paying subscriber, keep 30% of every monthly payment they make for the first year. No caps, no clawbacks past the refund window, real money.
Apply for the program →How it works
Sign up
Apply via the form below. We approve serious applicants within 2 business days. Existing paid subscribers are auto-eligible.
Get your link
You receive a unique ?ref=<your-code> link plus tracked UTM variants for newsletter, Twitter, and YouTube placement.
Earn 30%
Earn 30% of every paid plan referred (Starter $19/mo, Pro $49/mo) for the first 12 months. Payouts monthly, USDC or USD.
Who's a good fit
Payout structure
Plain math, all in USD. We do not back-load, hide caps, or impose a "must hit X referrals" minimum. You earn from referral one.
Monthly plans — 30% of every monthly payment for 12 months
| Plan | Subscriber pays | Your monthly cut | 12-month lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 / mo | $5.70 | $68.40 |
| Pro | $49 / mo | $14.70 | $176.40 |
Lifetime assumes the subscriber stays for 12 full months. If they cancel earlier, you collect for as many months as they paid.
Annual plans — 30% of the annual price, paid up front
| Plan | Subscriber pays (annual) | Your one-time payout |
|---|---|---|
| Starter annual | $182 / year (saves $46) | $54.60 |
| Pro annual | $470 / year (saves $118) | $141.00 |
Annual upgrades earn 30% of the annual price all in one go. Annual refunds within the 14-day window void the commission.
Worked example — a creator with a 50k newsletter
Suppose a newsletter at 50k subscribers runs one well-placed mention with their ?ref= link, converting at a typical 0.5% click-to-paid rate.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter sends | — | 50,000 |
| Click-through @ 4% | 50,000 × 0.04 | 2,000 clicks |
| Paid conversion @ 0.5% | 2,000 × 0.005 | 10 paid signups |
| Mix: 7 Starter + 3 Pro | 7 × $68.40 + 3 × $176.40 | $1,008 over 12 months |
Just one well-placed mention. Re-mentioning across newsletter editions, evergreen footer links, and podcast read-outs all stack on top.
High-leverage placement ideas
Referrers who do well with DeFi Intel typically share two habits: they put the link somewhere evergreen, and they pair it with an actual recommendation rather than a banner. A few placements that have outperformed for early referrers:
- Newsletter footer / sidebar. A persistent “Tools I use” or “Research I rely on” link converts long after any single send. Compounds over months.
- Pinned tweet / X bio. A pinned thread that walks through one DeFi Intel research piece with your
?ref=CTA at the bottom is the single highest-converting Twitter format we have measured. - Show notes & episode descriptions. Podcast hosts who add a one-line “research from DeFi Intel, link in show notes” mention to every episode, then keep the link in the show-notes template, generate steady drip-traffic.
- Conference / talk slides. A final-slide credit (“data via DeFi Intel — defi-intel.com/?ref=you”) on talks that get re-shared post-event keeps converting for years.
- Direct intros to research-heavy peers. One DM with one research link to a fund analyst who would actually pay for it converts at order-of-magnitude higher rates than any audience-broadcast channel.
Creatives & assets
We provide a small kit so you do not have to make assets from scratch:
- Logo pack — SVG and PNG, light and dark, square and horizontal lockups
- Banner pack — standard newsletter (1200×240), Twitter / X header (1500×500), and a square 1080×1080 for Instagram / LinkedIn
- Copy snippets — a dozen pre-written one-liners and a couple of longer recommendation paragraphs you can paste and adapt
- Sample research — two or three open-access pieces you can link to as proof of value, no paywall friction for the prospect
If you need a custom asset (a podcast read-out script, a specific dimension, a localised landing pitch), email [email protected] and we will turn it around within 2 business days.
Top referrers leaderboard
Live leaderboard
Leaderboard will populate post-launch. Top three referrers each quarter receive a bonus: a free 12-month Pro account to gift, plus a featured placement in our quarterly newsletter recap.
Reporting & dashboard
Once approved you get access to a referrer dashboard with a handful of useful numbers in one place: clicks by source (with UTM breakdown), signups, paid conversions, churn-adjusted lifetime value of your cohort, and pending vs. cleared commission balance. We do not bury data behind tiers — every active referrer sees the same level of attribution detail.
We send a monthly summary email on the 5th alongside the payout: how many referrals you drove, how many converted, MRR added, projected 12-month payout if retention holds, and any flagged signups awaiting manual review. If you prefer no email, you can mute the summary and just use the dashboard.
Legal & tax
The referral program is structured as a marketing-services arrangement, not as an investment-advice or solicitation arrangement. You are recommending a research product; you are not promoting a security or a token. That said, follow the rules of the platforms you post on — many require an #ad or #sponsored disclosure on paid affiliate content. Always disclose that your link is a referral link.
For US referrers earning over $600 in a calendar year, we will issue a 1099-NEC. For non-US referrers we treat payouts as gross marketing-fee payments and you are responsible for local tax treatment. We will provide a payment summary on request for accountant filings. If you are running this through a registered company, send us your business details on application and we will set up the payments under the entity, not the individual.
Anti-fraud rules
The non-negotiables
- No self-referrals. Subscribing to your own plan with your own link does not count and will be clawed back. Detection runs on email domain, payment method, IP and device signal.
- IP rate limits. More than 5 signups from the same IP block in a 24-hour window get flagged for manual review. Genuine team signups still pay out — just confirm with us.
- 30-day cookie window, last-touch attribution. If a prospect clicks your link and signs up within 30 days, you get attribution. If they then click another referrer's link and sign up, the latest referrer wins.
- No incentive-traffic, bot farms or ad arbitrage. Paid traffic must disclose source on application. We do not pay out on signups from compromised, incentive-network or bot-generated traffic.
- Chargebacks claw back commission 1:1. Refunds inside the 14-day window void the commission. Cancellations after month 1 do not — you keep what was already paid.
Apply now
Tell us about your audience
Email [email protected] with: (1) the channel(s) you'll be promoting through (Twitter handle, newsletter URL, podcast link), (2) approximate audience size, (3) why your audience overlaps with ours, (4) any past affiliate / referral programs you've run. We approve serious applications within 2 business days and you'll get your ?ref= link by reply.
Already a paid subscriber? Mention your account email and we'll fast-track you.
FAQs
Who can join the referral program?
The program is open to anyone with an audience that overlaps with our reader base: crypto Twitter accounts of 10k+ followers, newsletter authors, podcasters, conference speakers and peer publications. We also accept individual referrers without an audience — pros, analysts and engineers referring teammates and friends. We do not accept signups from incentive-traffic networks, bot farms or paid ad arbitrage.
How do I get paid?
Monthly payouts on the 5th of the following month, after a 14-day refund window has passed on each referred subscription. Minimum payout threshold is $50; below that, balance rolls forward. We pay in USDC (Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon) or USD via Wise. Annual plan referrals pay out as a single upfront commission.
What counts as a self-referral?
Subscribing to your own paid plan with your own referral link, or referring an account you operationally control. Self-referrals are blocked at signup based on email-domain heuristics and IP correlation, and any commission paid on a self-referral is clawed back. Referring your team or organization (different humans, different cards) is fine.
How long does the cookie window last?
30 days. If a prospect clicks your ?ref= link and signs up within 30 days, you get attribution. Last-touch wins — if they click your link, then a different referrer's link, then sign up, the second referrer gets the credit.
What happens to my commission if a referred subscriber cancels?
You earn 30% on every month they pay. If they cancel after month 3, you earn three months of commission and that's it. We do not claw back already-paid commissions on cancellation, only on chargebacks and on confirmed self-referral fraud. Annual plan refunds within the 14-day window void the entire commission.
Last updated 2026-05-03. Program terms subject to revision; existing referrers are notified 30 days ahead of any rate change. The DeFi Intel referral program is governed by our terms of service. Questions: [email protected].