How Nudge Is Building the Google Ads of Web3

Incentivizing real users, capital, and liquidity has long been one of crypto’s biggest challenges. While airdrops sparked early momentum for many protocols, they’ve proven unsustainable in the long term, often attracting mercenary users with little alignment to project goals. But what if there were a smarter, KPI-driven way to reward user behavior that actually supports ecosystem growth?

Enter Nudge, a crypto-native reallocation marketplace that combines the scalability of adtech with the transparency of onchain rewards. Positioned as the “Google Ads for crypto,” Nudge helps protocols incentivize meaningful asset movement—without the inefficiencies of traditional airdrops. Users earn predictable rewards for reallocating their assets and holding them over time, while protocols drive measurable, sustainable adoption.

In this interview, we spoke with Markus Maier – Founder of Nudge, and we explored how Nudge works under the hood, why it’s gaining traction across the industry, and how it’s reshaping the future of crypto incentives.

What inspired the creation of Nudge?

Nudge was born out of a simple observation: capital in crypto is highly mobile, but the way protocols incentivize users is inefficient and extractive. Most reward programs either pay for mercenary liquidity or fail to measure real, lasting impact. We saw a gap – there was no platform that let protocols pay for capital movement with precision. That inspired Nudge: a reallocation network where protocols reward users not for adding more money, but for moving their capital strategically. It’s the first incentive engine that aligns users’ yield with protocols’ growth KPIs.

How does Nudge technically ensure users are rewarded only after fulfilling campaign conditions (e.g., 7-day hold period)?

Every campaign is permissionlessly deployed using our Campaign Builder. Protocols define a reallocation rule (e.g., move $1,000 from Aave to Morpho), a holding period (e.g., 7 days), and a reward budget.

The lifecycle is as follows:

• Setup: Protocol launches a campaign and deposits funds into a smart contract escrow.
• User Participation: A user signs a transaction that proves a qualifying reallocation (e.g., stablecoin out of Protocol A, into Protocol B).
• Time Lock: Funds are only eligible if they stay put for the full hold period. Nudge monitors this using time-based checkpoints and snapshots.
• Payout: Once verified, the reward is claimable

This approach prevents gaming, avoids custodial risk, and ensures rewards are only paid for net-new, sticky TVL.

What makes Nudge a more sustainable alternative to traditional airdrops for protocols?

Nudge offers a more sustainable alternative to traditional airdrops because it is built around precision, performance, and programmability. Unlike conventional airdrops, which often distribute tokens indiscriminately to anyone who meets basic criteria—regardless of their long-term engagement or value to the protocol—Nudge allows projects to set specific KPIs that align with meaningful user behavior. For example, protocols can choose to reward only users who hold tokens for at least seven days or who bring in net-new capital above a certain threshold.

This results in no wasted spend, as rewards are only distributed when users actually meet the desired outcomes. Additionally, Nudges are fully programmable, meaning protocols can adjust the reward parameters, target specific user behaviors, and control risk exposure. This level of control and accountability creates a more efficient and targeted approach to user acquisition and retention, making Nudge far more sustainable than traditional, one-size-fits-all airdrops or blind liquidity mining strategies.

You describe Nudge as the “crypto-native version of Google Ads.” What does that mean?

Google Ads lets businesses pay for high-intent traffic. Nudge lets protocols pay for high-intent capital movement.

• For protocols: It’s targeted user acquisition — but instead of clicks or installs, you’re buying TVL that sticks.
• For users: You get rewarded not for holding or farming passively, but for switching providers — from one L1, L2, stablecoin, or restaking service to another.

We’re turning capital allocation into a performance marketing channel — with attribution, targeting, and incentives.

You just launched the Reallocation Network. What core problem does it solve?

It solves the inefficiency of capital acquisition.

Until now, protocols paid users for new deposits — often attracting mercenaries who leave the moment rewards dry up. The Reallocation Network flips that:

• Users get rewarded for shifting capital (from the competition), not adding more.
• Protocols get sticky TVL, only if users hold and qualify.

It’s a new incentive layer built for capital composability — designed for today’s fractured, multi-chain world.

Can you walk us through a real-world example of how a protocol might use Nudge to incentivize capital reallocation?

A liquid restaking protocol like Renzo could launch a Nudge campaign with the following terms:

• Users who reallocate from EtherFi’s eETH to ezETH qualify
• $10k budget with a 1% instant reward for reallocating (plus 10x Nudge Points )
• Rewards unlock if they hold for 7 days or more (=52% APY)

This lets Renzo target rival TVL with surgical precision, while users enjoy better restaking terms and an added Nudge bonus.

How does the “Fat User Thesis” inform the design and economics of your platform?

The “Fat User Thesis” posits that in the Web3 ecosystem, value should increasingly accrue to active users rather than solely to protocols or applications. This perspective challenges traditional models like the “Fat Protocol Thesis,” suggesting that users who actively reallocate their capital across platforms are pivotal in driving the ecosystem’s growth.

Nudge’s platform is designed to operationalize this thesis by providing programmable incentives—termed “Nudges”—that reward users for reallocating their assets, liquidity, and activity within the Web3 space. By doing so, Nudge aims to redistribute value from protocols and dApps directly to users, fostering a more user-centric and sustainable economic model in the decentralized ecosystem.

You’ve emphasized that users don’t take on additional risk — how do you ensure that?

Let me clarify – we are thinking in risk profiles per category. At Nudge, we operate on the principle that in crypto, the token is the product. Switching from one token to another within the same category—like moving from one stablecoin to another or from one staking provider to another—should be a risk-neutral action. Our platform is designed to reward users for these reallocations, ensuring they maintain the same underlying risk-category exposure while benefiting from better yields or services.

Of course, we always encourage users to conduct their own research. But fundamentally, Nudge aims to make capital movement within equivalent risk profiles both safe and rewarding.

How does the Campaign Builder work for protocols?

The Campaign Builder allows any protocol to easily launch and manage a campaign through a streamlined self-serve interface. Protocols can define custom reallocation rules, such as specifying a source and destination token, and set clear key performance indicators, like a minimum transaction size or required holding period. 

Once these parameters are set, the campaign can be funded using any ERC-20 or native token of choice. The platform also provides real-time performance tracking, giving protocols full visibility into how the campaign is progressing. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and every user interaction, known as a Nudge, is fully verifiable and transparent, ensuring trust and accountability throughout the campaign lifecycle.

Which asset classes or crypto sectors are you prioritizing first — and why?

We are currently prioritizing six risk-matched verticals that we believe represent the most strategic opportunities in the current market environment. These include stablecoins, staking, restaking, Layer 1 chains, Layer 2 roll-ups, and decentralized exchanges/lending protocols.

Our focus on these sectors is driven by their high capital intensity and the fact that they tend to be highly competitive, making them ideal for capital reallocation. Stablecoins, for example, are foundational to liquidity and transaction efficiency across the entire crypto ecosystem. Staking and restaking offer compelling yield opportunities while reinforcing network security. Meanwhile, L1 and L2 infrastructures continue to attract robust developer activity and ecosystem growth, serving as the backbone for decentralized applications. Lastly, DEXs and lending protocols are essential pillars of decentralized finance, facilitating permissionless trading and access to capital. Together, these sectors provide both defensive resilience and strong upside potential in the evolving Web3 landscape.

With backing from major players like Coinbase Ventures and Brevan Howard, what’s your roadmap post-launch?

With strong backing from industry leaders such as Coinbase Ventures and Brevan Howard, our post-launch roadmap is focused on expanding both our reach and functionality across the Web3 ecosystem. One of our key next steps is to roll out cross-chain campaigns beyond Ethereum mainnet, including integrations with ecosystems like Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Solana. These expansions will allow us to engage a wider user base and tap into diverse liquidity pools.

We’re also introducing innovative features such as Nudge Points and Loyalty Vaults, which are designed to reward long-term participation by allowing users to accumulate multipliers over time. This gamified approach not only encourages retention but also strengthens user engagement across multiple touchpoints.

On the institutional side, we’re developing an Institutional Reallocation Desk tailored for DAOs and crypto treasuries. This will enable more efficient capital deployment and help optimize treasury flows within the Web3 space.

Ultimately, our goal is to build the foundational incentive infrastructure that powers the movement of capital throughout Web3. What we’ve launched is only the beginning — we’re laying the groundwork for a more connected, efficient, and user-aligned decentralized economy.