Ryan Day is the CMO at Solstice, a DeFi protocol aiming to become the largest yield-bearing asset and stablecoin on Solana. Even pre-launch, Solstice secured TVL commitments that would rank it among the top ten stablecoins on Solana and grew its community from 2k to 60k followers in just two weeks. Ryan began his crypto journey at Blockworks during the pandemic and later joined Solana Labs to work on Gameshift, gaining deep experience in the Solana ecosystem before returning to his DeFi roots at Solstice.

I stumbled into crypto through podcasts during COVID. I joined Blockworks because I wanted to work in media, not because I was a huge crypto believer. At the time I thought the space was too volatile, but Jason Yanowitz convinced me to buy Bitcoin in 2020, and that was the spark. At Blockworks I gained a bird’s-eye view of the entire crypto landscape while working closely with our marketing partners, which eventually pulled me deeper into the industry.

From there I moved into Web3 gaming, first at Solana Labs on Gameshift. It was an incredible opportunity to immerse myself in the Solana ecosystem, work with talented teams, and partner with leading games. Gaming has always been a passion, but I found myself wanting to return to my DeFi roots. When I met the Solstice team, I was immediately drawn to the focus, conviction, and clarity of what was being built. That is what brought me here today.

I’m the CMO at Solstice, responsible for communicating our story and product to the market. What drew me in was the team itself, a group of smart, focused builders who had been through the ups and downs of previous projects and knew exactly what to prioritize. Solstice was in a vertical of crypto gaining real traction, and it is electric to be part of something finding product–market fit this quickly.

Even pre-launch we already have TVL commitments that would place us among the top five stablecoins on Solana. Seeing that level of conviction before the product is live has been incredibly energizing.

Solstice isn’t starting from zero; our growth comes from a strong institutional sales pipeline. For the past three years, we’ve been running the delta-neutral strategy privately for a fund with over $200M in AUM, and we’re now bringing that onchain.

Balancing a “suit-and-tie, boardroom” marketing strategy to support 1:1 institutional sales with retail-focused, engaging, timeline-driven content has been a challenge, but it’s also been one of the main reasons we’ve been able to kickstart this journey in a way that few others can.

It’s a huge advantage for users to be part of the initial liquidity in an ecosystem. We want anyone who joins to feel like they are working alongside us at a DeFi organization, not just participating from the outside. That is why we designed our incentives to be first in, last out. As the public gains access, they can trust that the team has their best interests at heart, because our success is directly tied to theirs. We want the community to feel the real rewards of building a crypto startup together.

Launch is right around the corner. With it comes a wave of announcements on partners, growth initiatives, our upcoming SLX token, and the roadmap to becoming the largest stablecoin on Solana.

Every company in crypto faces the cold start problem. Before our dapp was live, we needed a place to gather an early community and begin telling our story. Through our marketing agency we were introduced to Megaphone, and it gave us the foundation to connect with people who wanted to follow along from day one.

In just two weeks we went from 2k to 60k followers on X, so the results with Megaphone have been incredible.

We came in expecting an EVM-only solution, but right after we signed the team sprinted to add Solana wallet connections. That gave us a deeper view of our audience, including what collections they hold, what dapps they use, and how to engage them more effectively. It was a clear sign of how fast and product-focused the Megaphone team is, and it gave us insights we would not have had otherwise.

Megaphone took us from build phase to growth phase. Our explosive follower growth has given us a community foundation that compounds into launch. For us it works better than an email list, because it not only keeps our audience updated but also mobilizes them to help us grow.

Web2 marketers bring a lot of valuable tools and playbooks, and those should not be forgotten. What makes Web3 unique is the ability to rally a community around a common goal and reward people for showing up. The best marketers in this space know how to blend proven web2 marketing tactics with crypto as an incentive layer. Tools like Megaphone make community activation simple and actionable, which is critical for fast-moving teams.

Just hit post. The best marketers in crypto are out on the timeline making connections, staying in the trenches, and understanding the users they want to reach. The strongest teams don’t hide behind “intern accounts.” Their marketers are publicly chopping it up with the community every day.

Most early users are not believers. They are speculators looking for upside. The job of marketing is to turn speculators into believers by understanding what excites them, delivering a great user experience, and following through on the upside. The best projects from past cycles helped their earliest users win alongside them, and even if the token is down today, those users remain the foundation that sticks by the team forever.