Sponsor DeFi Intel
Reach 11,787 protocols and the analysts, founders and capital allocators who research them. Five sponsorship products, transparent rate card, strict editorial firewall.
Why sponsor
- Audience composition. DeFi Intel readers are primarily protocol founders, on-chain analysts, fund associates, fintech engineers and crypto-native journalists — the people who shape narrative and capital flow in digital assets, not retail price-watchers.
- Content quality. Every entity profile, guide and research piece is hand-curated and source-cited. Sponsored placements sit beside content that gets quoted in IOSCO, BIS and FSB reports — your brand inherits that authority surface.
- Brand-safe environment. No price manipulation chatter, no anonymous hot-takes, no shitcoin shilling. We do not run sensational headlines or pump-and-dump-friendly content. Compliance-friendly inventory for regulated venues.
- Traffic mix. Healthy split across direct, organic search, newsletter, RSS and referral. Long-tail entity pages get sustained traffic for years after publication, so your placement compounds rather than evaporating after a single news cycle.
Audience
Snapshot stats updated quarterly. Ranges below are projections for the back half of 2026 based on growth observed since launch; replace with point figures once we have a settled quarterly average. Email sales for the live media kit, audience breakdown, and Plausible / GA verification.
For a current point-in-time impressions / sessions / unique-visitor figure plus a country and referrer breakdown, request the media kit. We publish the snapshot in a one-page PDF refreshed every quarter.
Sponsorship products & rate card
Five products, listed below from highest-leverage placement to broadest-reach inventory. All prices in USD; we accept USDC (multi-chain), USD via Stripe, and EUR via SEPA. Multi-month commits (6 and 12 months prepaid) qualify for 10-25% discounts; ask sales.
Hub sponsorship
Own a topic hub — e.g. MEV Hub, Stablecoins Europe Hub, Restaking Hub, RWA Hub. Placement includes a sponsor logo and a 100-word blurb in the hub header on every page that lives inside the hub (typically 30-120 entity / news / guide pages).
- Category-exclusive by default — one sponsor per hub at any time
- Logo + 100-word blurb in the hub header on every hub page
- One newsletter mention per month, in the section covering that hub
- Inclusion in the quarterly hub recap email
Featured entity profile
Top-of-list placement on related entity pages. If you sponsor at, for example, the protocol level, your brand badge plus a 30-word call-out appears at the top of the related-entities sidebar on every page that links to a similar protocol.
- Brand badge + 30-word call-out on related-entity sidebars
- Pinned to the top of the relevant entity-list pages (e.g. lending protocols list)
- Clearly labelled Featured on every surface (web, RSS, JSON feed)
Newsletter sponsorship
Header banner plus 50 words of ad copy at the top of the weekly DeFi Intel brief. The newsletter goes out every Tuesday morning UTC, with a separate Friday digest for paid subscribers.
- Header banner image (1200×240) + 50-word ad copy + tracked click-through link
- Weekly slot — book 14 days ahead, slots fill
- Open and click-through metrics shared post-send
- Bundled discount available with Hub or Featured Profile
Flagship report co-brand
Co-branded long-form research drop on a topic of mutual interest. Roughly a 30-page research report, joint blog, joint LinkedIn / Twitter announcement, and a dedicated landing page that lives on defi-intel.com. Typical lead time 6-10 weeks.
- ~30-page co-branded research PDF, designed by us
- Dedicated landing page with form-gated download (lead handoff to sponsor)
- Joint announcement on Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletter
- Pricing varies by scope: $5K topical brief · $10K standard report · $20K flagship multi-section
- Editorial control of methodology and findings stays with DeFi Intel — sponsor reviews for factual accuracy only
Native ad slot (home + entity pages)
Native display ad units on the home page and entity pages. Managed via Coinzilla, Bitmedia or direct insertion order. Standard IAB sizes plus our custom in-content native unit.
- $8 CPM — competitive with the major crypto ad networks for an audience of our quality
- Direct insertion orders welcome for $5K+ commitments
- Frequency caps and category exclusion available on direct deals
Bundles & multi-product packages
Most sponsors get the most leverage from combining a placement product with a content product. Three bundles we run most often:
- Hub + Newsletter — $3,200 / month (instead of $3,500). Own a topic hub and own the newsletter slot the same week we publish hub-relevant news. The newsletter mention drives traffic to the hub where the sponsor logo lives.
- Featured Profile + Native Ads — $5,000 / month minimum spend. Featured Profile drives qualified click-through from related entity pages; Native Ads add reach across the rest of the site at $8 CPM. Common for protocols launching a new product and chasing front-loaded awareness.
- Flagship Report + Newsletter (3 issues) + Featured Profile (3 months) — from $12,000. The full launch package for a major product or category drop: research drives the narrative, newsletter drives the audience, Featured Profile keeps the spotlight while you ship.
We will quote any bespoke combination — ask sales with your goals and budget, and we will reverse-engineer a package that hits the goals.
Creative specs & what we accept
For Hub and Featured Profile sponsorships we ask for: a transparent-background SVG or PNG logo (light + dark variants), a 100-word brand blurb (Hub) or 30-word call-out (Featured Profile), and a destination URL with optional UTM parameters. We will format the placement to match the site visually so it does not feel like a banner ad — readers consistently rate native sponsor blocks higher than IAB display.
For Newsletter sponsorships we need a 1200×240 banner, 50 words of copy, and a tracked link. The banner can include a CTA button graphic; the copy should read like a newsletter, not like a press release. We will edit lightly for tone — or send back if it crosses into editorial-style claims about the protocol’s safety, returns or comparative ranking.
For Flagship reports we will run a kickoff call to align on scope, methodology and key chart inventory. Sponsor reviews drafts for factual accuracy on internal claims (e.g. “our TVL is X, not Y”) but does not edit the analysis or framing. Final approval to publish stays with our editors.
What we will not run: token-price predictions, “guaranteed APY” copy, copy that misrepresents audited / unaudited status, or copy that claims jurisdictional approval the protocol does not have. If you are unsure whether copy will pass, send a draft early and we will flag issues before the production slot.
Editorial firewall
What this means in practice
Editorial coverage on entity profiles is independent of sponsorship status. We will not write more positively about a brand because they sponsor, and we will not soften incident reporting, risk callouts or governance critique for a sponsor.
Three concrete rules. (1) Coverage is unchanged by sponsorship. Same depth, same risk callouts, same incident reporting, same comparison tables, whether or not the entity is a current sponsor. (2) Sponsored placements are clearly labelled — Sponsor, Featured, Sponsored research — on every surface, including newsletter, RSS, and JSON feeds. (3) Editorial and sales are separate humans. Sponsors do not have direct lines to writers; writers do not see invoices or sales pipelines.
If you cannot live with that, DeFi Intel is not the right venue. If you can, you get the upside of being adjacent to coverage that readers actually trust.
How to apply
Tell us about your campaign
Email [email protected] with: (1) which products you are interested in, (2) your target audience profile, (3) your budget and timeline, (4) any creative or copy already in hand. We respond within 2 business days with a proposal and slot availability.
For Flagship reports, please also include the topic of interest, the angle you want to explore, and any data sources you would contribute. We do not co-brand reports we would not have published anyway.
FAQs
Can I sponsor coverage of my own protocol?
You can sponsor a Hub or Featured Profile slot adjacent to coverage of your protocol, and you can co-brand a flagship report on a topic of mutual interest. You cannot pay for coverage itself — our editorial team retains complete control of which entities are covered, what is written, and how risks and incidents are characterised. Sponsorship buys placement; it does not buy editorial. See Editorial firewall for specifics.
What's the editorial firewall in practice?
Three concrete rules. (1) Editorial coverage of an entity is unchanged by whether the entity is a sponsor — same depth, same risk callouts, same incident reporting. (2) Sponsored placements are visually labelled (Sponsor / Featured / Sponsored research) on every surface, including newsletter, RSS, and JSON feeds. (3) The editorial team and the sponsorship sales contact are separate humans; sponsors do not have direct lines to writers and writers do not see invoices.
Can I get exclusivity on a hub?
Yes. Hub sponsorships are by default category-exclusive — the MEV Hub takes one MEV-protocol sponsor at a time, the Stablecoins Hub takes one issuer at a time. Exclusivity is included in the $2,000/mo price; we do not stack competing sponsors on a single hub. Multi-month commits (3, 6, 12 months) get small discounts (10-15% on 6 months, 20-25% on 12 months prepaid).
Do you accept token sponsorships?
We accept payment in USDC (Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon), USD via Stripe, and EUR via SEPA. We do not accept payment in protocol governance tokens or non-stablecoin assets — too much price risk on both sides, and it creates uncomfortable optics around token concentration. Stablecoin and fiat only.
What's the lead time?
Hub and Featured Profile slots: typically 7-10 business days from contract sign to live placement. Newsletter sponsorships: book 14 days ahead — slots fill in advance. Flagship reports: 6-10 weeks from kickoff to public drop, depending on scope. Rush placements may be available; ask sales.
Can we negotiate?
On bundles and multi-month commits, yes. We will discount 10-15% on 6-month and 20-25% on 12-month prepaid commits, and we frequently bundle Hub + Newsletter + Featured Profile into multi-product packages. We do not discount single-month spot buys. Email [email protected] with your budget and target audience and we will come back with a proposal within 2 business days.
Last updated 2026-05-03. Rate card subject to revision quarterly. All sponsorship products are subject to our editorial firewall and to the DeFi Intel terms of service. Questions: [email protected].