Brand and culture as demand
Quick scan. Confidence: medium on fintech precedents, low on bitcoin-specific evidence. Last updated November 8, 2026.
The question
Bitcoin’s culture celebrates buying and holding, and its image puts many people off; Spiral’s report makes the same point. How have payment products used brand and culture to create demand, and what would that mean for bitcoin?
What’s happening
Cash App grew through culture it didn’t plan. Hip-hop artists name-dropped Cash App in songs and videos, which Jack Dorsey said the company hadn’t expected. Cash App Fridays let users reply with their $cashtag for $100–$500 prizes (an estimated $60,000 in 2019), and artists ran similar giveaways to their own followings at low cost. Monthly active users grew from 7 million in 2017 to 15 million in 2018 and 24 million in 2019, faster than Venmo (Trapital, 2020).
Monzo’s card was an advert. Monzo’s coral debit card prompted people to ask “what card is that?”. Combined with in-app referrals and a public community forum where customers voted on features, it drove growth with “almost no paid acquisition cost” (Lilach Bullock). [to verify: referral share and spend figures]
Venmo made payments social, with mixed feelings. In a study of Venmo’s social feed (two surveys and 14 interviews), most people found seeing friends’ payments awkward, yet 11 of 14 interviewees kept the public default. They managed it by writing plain memos for acquaintances and inside jokes for close friends (ACM CSCW on Medium).
For bitcoin, the barrier is relevance, not hostility. Spiral’s own 2022 survey of 1,030 people in nine countries (Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Greece, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, Turkey), plus 41 interviews, found women and men view bitcoin’s safety similarly. Women cited a lack of clear learning resources, bitcoin rarely coming up in their social circles, and a focus on price over practical use: “How can bitcoin help me buy milk at the store?” Relatable voices mattered, and over a third preferred local influencers (Spiral).
Say versus do: fintech brands say they win on features. What they did was become part of how people express themselves: a song lyric, a card people ask about, a playful memo. Venmo users say the feed is awkward and do keep it public. And people outside bitcoin don’t say they dislike it; they say it isn’t relevant to them.
Who
| Group | What reaches them | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| People curious about bitcoin but put off by its image | Relatable, local voices; practical use | Spiral’s 2022 survey |
| Communities with strong identities (fans, scenes, creators) | Collaborations, themes, presence in their culture | Area 11 |
| Young, culturally influential audiences | Music, social giveaways, visible objects | The Cash App pattern |
| Existing holders | Reasons and moments to use bitcoin | Spiral’s “new reasons to spend” |
What could serve this
Kinds of product
This area is mostly about practice rather than products:
- Campaigns and collaborations with artists, designers and communities.
- Visible objects: wallet passes, cards, stickers, merchandise.
- Tools for creators to make themes or branded payment pages.
- Community programs: forums, ambassadors, local events.
Trade-offs for wallets
- It needs no custody or servers. Brand, themes, visible objects (cards, passes, stickers) and collaborations all happen at the product and communication level.
- It’s a lever, not a market. Brand creates demand within an audience; it doesn’t define one. It works best combined with another area (community economies, gifting, earning).
- Distribution costs money: Cash App had giveaways and Square’s reach; Monzo had a physical card. Most self-custodial wallets have no card and little marketing budget, so collaborations and communities are the realistic channels.
- “Lead with the payment, not the asset” fits wallets that don’t put bitcoin jargon first.
Risks
- Brand without product: culture amplifies a product people already like; it can’t replace one.
- Authenticity: communities reject brands that borrow their culture without belonging to it.
- Privacy: social, visible payments (the Venmo feed) carry real privacy risks, which matter more for self-custodial users.
Open questions for a deep dive
- Which bitcoin products have grown through culture rather than through bitcoin channels, if any?
- What’s the equivalent of Monzo’s coral card for a self-custodial wallet with no physical card: a wallet pass, a theme, a sticker, a payment moment?
- Which communities would welcome a collaboration, and what would they want out of it?
- Does “get paid in bitcoin” (Spiral’s framing) resonate more than “save” or “spend” with people outside bitcoin?
- How do visible, social payments work for people who value privacy?