Lbank’s Muha Says Crypto Growth Now Runs On Culture, Identity, And Inclusion

What Happened

The session featured Muha, Head of Social, Community, and Partnerships at LBank, who has spent nearly five years building the exchange’s social presence.

In his view, many crypto platforms benefited from users who were already inside the market. Exchanges, launchpads, and projects often rode the same waves of attention as users chased new tokens, new trends, and new communities.

Market Context

Crypto Growth Relied Too Much on Market Waves

According to Muha, LBank’s internal realization developed over time. The team watched attention fragment across crypto and began asking why growth should depend on the next market wave.

He pointed to LBank’s existing base of more than 20 million users and more than a decade in the market as reasons to think beyond cycle timing.

“Why are we waiting for permission from the market cycle?” Muha said. “Are we going to wait for the bull market? Are we going to wait for a new AI agent narrative?”

The strongest theme of the Space was culture. Muha acknowledged how often crypto marketing uses the term.

Why It Matters

For LBank, culture means shared references, humor, identity, and the feeling of belonging. Muha said users may join for incentives, but long-term attachment comes from recognition.

He described Punky as a character rooted in crypto humor, risk appetite, and community language. Some internal concerns existed around linking a serious exchange with a meme-driven IP, but Muha viewed the campaign as a way to speak directly to crypto-native users.

Details

During a recent LBank X Space, BeInCrypto served as a special media observer as the exchange hosted a keynote-style conversation on crypto growth, culture, and user onboarding.

Muha opened with a view of how crypto adoption has worked across past cycles.

“For most of crypto and Web3 history, growth was kind of an accident,” he said. “We had token pumps, someone told a friend, the friend opened an account, and that cycle repeated for years.”

“The user just showed up and the numbers went up,” Muha said.

He argued that this model has become weaker as attention cycles compress. AI agent tokens peaked and faded within weeks, while meme coin runs can now last days. For builders, this creates a harder environment for long-term growth.

“If your entire growth model depends on a narrative you did not create and cannot control, you don’t have a growth model,” he said. “You have pure luck.”

LBank Started Asking a Different Growth Question

That question pushed LBank to examine the barrier between Web3 and outside audiences. Muha said the answer was culture and education.

Culture Creates User Attachment

“A fee structure gets you a transaction,” he said. “Culture gets you a person.”

He compared crypto platforms to consumer brands and sports teams. People support them because they feel part of something, even during weaker periods.

“You’re still representing that team,” he said. “There’s culture, and we don’t see that in Web3 enough.”

Punky Became LBank’s First Major Culture Test

Muha described LBank’s Punky campaign as one of the exchange’s first major experiments with crypto-native culture. He said he personally pushed for the collaboration because Punky already had a strong community and recognizable personality across Web3.

“Punky is not just a mascot,” Muha said. “It’s a cultural artifact.”