Preview
Bybit WSOT 2024 turned into the biggest crypto trading competition ever – over 77,000 traders from 161 countries, driving $100B in trading volume. To match that scale, Formula ran a 2.5-month promo campaign spanning PR, editorial, KOL activations, and paid placements, keeping attention high before launch, throughout the competition, and after it wrapped. Here’s how we built it – and what it delivered.
World Series of Trading (WSOT) has been Bybit’s flagship trading competition for years, bringing together crypto traders from around the world in one event. In 2024, the exchange expanded the format with a 10 million USDT pool and prizes like Rolex watches, travel packages, and even a yacht. Bybit also added DEX trading for the first time, so participants could trade from a universe of over 1 million DeFi tokens directly within the competition.
Because of the size of the event, the marketing couldn’t stop at the launch announcement. We had to keep WSOT in front of people the whole way through, from kickoff to the final showdown. That meant staying present for months across crypto media, social channels, trader communities, and creator networks.
That was the context behind Bybit WSOT 2024.
According to Bybit’s official recap, the competition attracted more than 77,000 traders from 161 countries and generated over $100 billion in trading volume during the campaign period. The leading individual trader posted record profits of $16.5 million, and the top squad moved $6.9 billion in volume.
For Formula, the brief was straightforward: stay loud before launch, stay present during the competition, and finish with a strong recap. To pull that off, we ran a multi-week campaign where PR, content, creators, and paid placements all worked together.
Building visibility before launch
Pre-launch was all about getting WSOT on people’s radar early. We wanted everyone to watch WSOT 2024 before the leaderboard battles kicked in. So Formula rolled out a multi-channel push that blended press coverage, social amplification, creator support, and editorial placements.
That meant PR in top-tier crypto outlets, Cointelegraph integrations, X posts, newsletter features, KOL activations, and banner ads running alongside it all.
By the end of this phase, Formula had landed 595 PR placements across Tier 1-4 media. We also delivered 12 X posts and newsletter integrations reaching 143,000 subscribers.
Each channel had a clear job. PR built broad visibility with crypto-native audiences. Cointelegraph helped add credibility and keep the story consistent. Social media kept WSOT showing up repeatedly during the countdown to launch.
We also ran five KOL activations, coordinating timing and approvals so creators could post in a way that felt native to their communities. The goal was straightforward: keep WSOT 2024 visible where traders actually hang out.
Formula additionally managed countdown banner campaigns and promotional placements designed for high-traffic crypto audiences. Banner placements generated 3.8 million impressions.
The pre-launch phase established the initial reach foundation before the competition entered its most active stage.
Expanding reach during the competition
At this stage, the focus moved from awareness into sustained engagement. The market already knew the competition existed. The challenge became maintaining visibility while trading activity, rankings, and community participation evolved in real time.
Formula extended the campaign with launch-stage media coverage, interactive editorial content, additional PR distribution, X Spaces activations, and continued KOL participation.
One of the central pieces of the campaign was an interactive Cointelegraph article supported by a 24-hour homepage pin and additional “Read more” widget placement. This format allowed the campaign to move beyond static press coverage.
The interactive article alone generated an estimated reach of 6.1 million.
We also pushed out another round of PR to 20 publications, including several Tier-1 and Tier-2 outlets. At the same time, Formula ran a four-week banner campaign, geo-targeted to reach the crypto audiences that mattered most.
X Spaces became another important part of the launch-stage strategy. These sessions included topic planning, guest coordination, live moderation, and post-event distribution through Cointelegraph channels.
This combination helped maintain campaign visibility across different audience segments during the most active trading period.
Results and campaign impact
After the Final Showdown, the 2.5-month campaign closed with a final editorial article on Cointelegraph. It was a proper recap that captured the competition’s results and kept the story alive past the event itself.
The outcome reflected the scale. Across all channels, the campaign generated more than 109 million impressions and reached over 5.7 million users.
Bybit’s official data showed that WSOT 2024 became a record-breaking edition of the competition. Marketing-wise, the takeaway was simple: coordinating PR, editorial, creators, and paid placements kept the campaign visible at every phase.
For Formula, this project also became a strong example of how a Web3 event marketing agency can support exchange campaigns that require both scale and continuity. Bybit already had a major product and a global audience. Formula’s job was to package and distribute the story – so traders kept seeing WSOT updates before launch, during the rankings race, and after the finale.
Looking for support with a crypto campaign?
Formula works with exchanges, Web3 companies, infrastructure projects, and blockchain brands on PR, media strategy, content distribution, and multi-channel campaign execution.
