How to Boost Crypto Retention with Formo: What Works Best?
Formo doubles day-7 retention in crypto by unifying onchain and offchain data to build wallet profiles and track acquisition ROI. Projects combat 25% day-1 churn and below 15% 30-day rates through strategies like analysing user journeys, prioritising high-value wallets, and deploying real-time campaigns via token-gated forms. This playbook delivers targeted engagement over broad efforts.
Crypto projects face stark retention challenges, with fewer than 25% of users returning after day one. Fragmented onchain and offchain data hinders targeted engagement for growth teams. This playbook outlines Formo’s top strategies that unify data sources to double day-7 retention rates.
Introduction
User retention remains the primary obstacle for sustainable growth in the crypto industry. While many projects successfully attract initial traffic through hype cycles or incentives, keeping those users engaged over time proves difficult. Data indicates that most applications struggle to maintain a loyal user base once the initial novelty fades.
The statistics paint a stark picture of this reality. According to industry reports, the average 30-day retention rate for Web3 apps often falls below 15% as of 2023 (DappRadar). This high churn rate forces teams to constantly spend on acquisition just to maintain stable numbers. To break this cycle, builders must shift focus from acquiring anonymous addresses to understanding and retaining actual users through data-driven strategies.
What Is Crypto Retention and Why Does It Matter?
Crypto retention refers to the ability of a project to keep users active and engaged with their onchain products over an extended period. Unlike traditional web metrics that might count a login as retention, onchain retention focuses on meaningful economic activity, such as transaction volume, governance participation, or liquidity provision.
Understanding this distinction is vital for long-term viability. High retention rates correlate directly with higher customer lifetime value (LTV), allowing projects to spend more efficiently on acquisition. When users stay longer, the ratio between the value they generate and the cost to acquire them improves significantly.
"Retention answers the question: who’s staying? Measured as percentage of users completing onchain action or sustained activity." - a16z crypto (a16zcrypto)
The Challenges of Retention in Crypto Projects
Retaining users in the crypto space presents unique difficulties compared to traditional software. The primary challenge is the anonymity of wallet addresses, which disconnects onchain actions from offchain identity. Without knowing who a user is or where they came from, teams cannot easily segment audiences or personalize communication.
Furthermore, the prevalence of incentive programs creates noise in the data. Many addresses interacting with a protocol belong to "mercenary capital"—users who engage solely to farm rewards and leave immediately after. This behavior distorts growth metrics.
"A surge of airdrop farmers may look like growth, but many leave. Define 'ideal' user and measure retention relative to that cohort." - a16z crypto (a16zcrypto)
Introducing Formo: Unifying Data for Smarter Retention
Formo addresses the retention crisis by bridging the gap between anonymous blockchain transactions and user identity. It functions as an analytics and data platform that unifies onchain and offchain data, providing product teams with a complete view of their user base.
Rather than viewing users as isolated wallet strings, Formo helps teams construct detailed profiles that combine transaction history with web behavior. This unified approach allows for precise segmentation. By identifying which acquisition channels bring in high-value users versus low-value churners, projects can optimize their marketing spend and build features that actually serve their core audience.
How Formo Works to Boost Retention
Formo operates by aggregating disparate data points into a cohesive user management system. The platform connects directly to blockchain data sources and integrates with front-end applications to track user behavior across the entire funnel. This process transforms raw data into actionable insights for retention.
Unifying Onchain and Offchain Data
The core engine of Formo merges public ledger data with private interaction data. This combination reveals not just what a wallet did, but who is behind it and how they interact with the interface.
Data Type | Example |
|---|---|
Onchain | Transaction history, token balances, contract interactions |
Offchain | Website clicks, email opens, page views |
By examining a wallet’s composition, teams can see what assets it holds, how much, and where activity is directed (a16zcrypto).
Building Actionable Wallet Profiles
Formo processes this unified data to create comprehensive wallet profiles. These profiles categorize users based on their actual behavior rather than just their holdings.
Key attributes tracked include:
Recency: When was the last transaction?
Frequency: How often do they interact with the protocol?
Monetary Value: What is the total volume of their activity?
This segmentation allows teams to identify power users who need VIP treatment and at-risk users who require re-engagement campaigns.
Leveraging Token-Gated Forms
To bridge the final gap between wallet and identity, Formo utilizes token-gated forms. These forms require users to prove ownership of a specific asset or history to access content, surveys, or rewards. This mechanism allows teams to collect zero-party data—such as email addresses or feedback—directly from verified token holders. It ensures that marketing efforts reach actual stakeholders rather than bots or casual browsers.
Best Practices: What Works Best with Formo
Implementing Formo effectively requires a shift in strategy from broad broadcasting to targeted engagement. Success comes from using data to deliver value to specific user segments. The goal is to move users from passive holders to active participants.
Research distinguishes between 'activity retention' and 'holder retention' (Glassnode). The former measures economic throughput, while the latter measures conviction. Formo supports strategies that address both by enabling teams to visualize the entire user lifecycle.
Analyse User Journeys for Personalised Engagement
Teams should map out the exact path users take from their first site visit to their first transaction. Formo allows builders to see where drop-offs occur in this funnel. User retention is measured as the percentage of users engaging over time; tracking drop-off points improves retention significantly (Udonis). If users abandon the app after connecting their wallet but before depositing, the onboarding UI likely needs adjustment.
Track Acquisition ROI to Prioritise High-Value Wallets
Not all users offer equal value. Formo enables teams to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) for different acquisition channels by tracking the onchain value generated by users from those sources.
Identify Whales: See which channels bring in high-volume traders.
Filter Noise: Spot sources that only bring in airdrop farmers.
Optimize Spend: Reallocate budget to channels that deliver long-term holders.
Deploy Real-Time Retention Campaigns
Speed is critical in crypto markets. Formo allows teams to set up triggers based on real-time onchain events. If a high-value user moves a large amount of funds or interacts with a competitor's contract, the system can flag this behavior. Teams can then deploy immediate, targeted campaigns—such as a special offer or a personalized email via a token-gated form—to re-engage that user before they churn completely.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Formo
Even with powerful tools, poor strategy can lead to suboptimal results. Builders often fall into specific traps when analyzing retention data.
Ignoring Privacy: Collecting too much personal data without consent can alienate privacy-conscious crypto users.
Vanity Metrics: Focusing on total wallet connections instead of active transactions gives a false sense of security.
Generic Messaging: Sending the same blast email to a whale and a novice user reduces engagement rates.
Analysis Paralysis: Spending too much time looking at dashboards without taking action on the insights.
Getting Started with Formo for Retention
Implementing a data-driven retention strategy is straightforward with the right setup. Formo is designed to integrate into existing workflows with minimal technical overhead.
Step 1: Set Up Your Formo Account
The first step involves creating an account and defining the project workspace. Teams configure their privacy settings and define the specific smart contracts they wish to monitor. This establishes the baseline for all onchain data collection.
Step 2: Connect Your Data Sources
Next, builders integrate Formo with their application. This typically involves:
Adding the tracking snippet to the web application.
Connecting the project's official social accounts or email providers.
Importing historical wallet lists if available.
This connection merges the offchain activity with the onchain monitoring established in step one.
Step 3: Launch Your First Retention Dashboard
Finally, teams configure their primary dashboard to visualize key metrics. A standard setup includes graphs for daily active users, churn rate by cohort, and average revenue per user. With this view, the team can immediately begin identifying trends and launching targeted retention experiments.
Conclusion
Boosting retention in the crypto ecosystem requires moving beyond anonymity and understanding the humans behind the wallets. By unifying onchain and offchain data, Formo provides the clarity needed to build meaningful relationships with users. Whether through personalized journeys, ROI tracking, or real-time engagement, the tools to fix the leaky bucket of crypto user growth are now available. Success belongs to the teams that use this data to treat their community as individuals, not just addresses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the pricing for Formo?
Formo offers tiered plans starting at $99 per month for basic analytics, scaling to enterprise options at $999+ for advanced segmentation and real-time triggers. Custom quotes apply for high-volume projects.
How long does Formo integration take?
Integration typically completes in 30 minutes to 1 hour for web apps via a simple tracking snippet. Full dashboard setup follows within the same day.
Does Formo support multiple blockchains?
Formo supports Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, and 10+ other EVM-compatible chains, with plans for Bitcoin and Cosmos ecosystems. Cross-chain wallet profiling unifies activity across networks.
What privacy features does Formo include?
Formo ensures GDPR and CCPA compliance through anonymized data processing, user consent for offchain collection, and zero-knowledge proofs for token-gated forms. No personal data stores without explicit permission.
Can Formo integrate with tools like Discord or Telegram?
Formo integrates natively with Discord bots for token-gated communities and Telegram via webhooks for real-time alerts. Email providers like Mailchimp connect for personalized campaigns based on wallet profiles.
