Key Takeaways:
- Victorious PR secured 100+ placements for Olas across Forbes, VentureBeat, CoinDesk, Fast Company, and USA Today.
- Ghostwritten op-eds positioned CEO David Minarsch as a leading voice on decentralized AI, with his CoinDesk piece generating thousands of views.
- The Victorious PR campaign translated coverage into tangible results: accelerated Pearl platform user onboarding, increased investor interest, and rapid growth in Mech Marketplace agent listings, establishing Olas as a category leader in user-owned AI.
When Olas launched in 2021 as a decentralized autonomous organization with 50 members, the project faced a problem familiar to many Web3 founders. The technology was groundbreaking, the vision was clear; however, the headlines belonged to Big Tech, and mainstream audiences had no idea user-owned AI even existed.
Three years later, Olas has raised $13.8 million in funding, processed over 3.5 million transactions across nine blockchains, and landed coverage in Forbes, VentureBeat, CoinDesk, Fast Company, and USA Today. The company’s Pearl network now functions as the world’s first AI agent app store, letting everyday users deploy and own autonomous agents without technical expertise.
That transformation happened through a deliberate PR strategy that positioned Olas as a category leader while elevating co-founder and CEO David Minarsch as a trusted voice on decentralized AI.
Solving the Innovator’s Visibility Problem
Olas faced a challenge common among technically sophisticated projects: the gap between what they built and what the market understood. Centralized AI systems dominated public attention. Venture-backed competitors commanded headlines. Meanwhile, Olas’s innovations in user-owned AI agents remained confined to crypto-native circles, limiting adoption and investor interest.
The company needed a narrative framework that translated complex technology into stories journalists and mainstream readers could grasp. It needed Minarsch positioned as a thought leader whose expertise could humanize the brand. It needed placements across multiple media channels to reach fragmented audiences wherever they consumed content.
Victorious PR’s approach operated across five pillars: press releases for timely announcements, profile pieces for personal branding, expertise articles for thought leadership, podcasts for conversational depth, and top-tier press for credibility. Each pillar reinforced the others, creating visibility in the ecosystem.
Building Authority Through Thought Leadership
The turning point came through ghostwritten content that established Minarsch as a go-to voice on decentralized AI. In-depth interviews captured his perspective, which was then crafted into op-eds and articles placed in publications where his target audience already paid attention.
A CoinDesk piece titled “The Case for User-Owned AI” positioned Minarsch as the antidote to centralized AI risks, generating thousands of views and sparking debate about ownership models in artificial intelligence. Forbes featured his insights on autonomous economic agents and blockchain-built AI transforming crypto, DeFi, and gaming. Mashable published a deep dive on co-owned AI, while USA Today covered the Genie agent as a revolutionary tool for mainstream users.
“By giving everyone AI agents they can not only use, but fully own and customize, we’re turning the status quo on its head,” Minarsch told VentureBeat during the Pearl launch announcement. “At a time when advances in AI can seem increasingly daunting, Olas is uniquely giving control of AI back to the user.”
That message became the throughline of the entire campaign. Olas had positioned itself as a movement toward AI ownership.
Placements That Drove Measurable Results
The campaign secured more than 100 publication placements across mainstream, crypto-native, and technology outlets. VentureBeat covered Pearl’s launch as the first AI agent store backed by $13.8 million in funding. CoinDesk featured the Mech Marketplace as a breakthrough that enables AI agents to hire one another. Cointelegraph highlighted Olas’s “Baby Degen” AI agent for 24/7 crypto trading. Fast Company spotlighted the company in coverage of AI modernizing outdated industries.
Beyond individual articles, Olas dominated industry rankings, thanks to the work of Victorious PR. Some of the rankings they were able to secure include CoinCodex, which named it a top DeFAI project. InsideBitcoins identified it as a trending AI token on the Polygon network. CoinCodeCap ranked it among the top 10 AI agents for crypto. These rankings reinforced category positioning and provided social proof for investors evaluating the project.
The podcast strategy extended reach through platforms like Hackernoon’s “Agents Unleashed,” where episodes explored Olas’s funding and the decentralized AI revolution. Benzinga and Binance covered events, including the AI Agent Festival at ETHCC, generating ecosystem buzz that complemented traditional press. TradingView hosted an AMA session that connected directly with the crypto trading community.
Binance and CoinMarketCap published guides on how to buy the OLAS token, converting media interest into actionable next steps for potential users and investors. This combination of awareness-building coverage and conversion-focused content created a complete funnel from discovery to participation.
Post-campaign metrics confirmed the impact. User onboarding through Pearl accelerated following coverage in mainstream outlets. The platform has since recorded over 10 million total Agent transactions and now supports the largest Agent base in the sector, with more than 400 daily active agents. Agent listings on Mech Marketplace grew as developers recognized the ecosystem’s momentum and media validation.
The visibility flywheel that had stalled began spinning. Media coverage drove adoption, adoption validated the product, and product traction attracted more media. Olas moved from competing for attention in niche crypto circles to being cited as a category leader in conversations about the future of AI ownership.
For Web3 founders navigating crowded markets where attention determines adoption, the Olas campaign offers a blueprint. Visibility isn’t a byproduct of great technology. It’s a strategic asset that requires the same deliberate investment as product development itself. The companies that win aren’t always the ones with the best code. They’re the ones whose stories reach the right audiences at the right time through the right channels.
About Victorious PR
Victorious PR is an award-winning full-service PR agency that helps businesses get featured in industry-specific media, local press, podcasts, and top publications to be seen as industry leaders in their fields. They have won numerous awards, such as the Global 100 Award for Best Public Relations & Communications Business of 2026, and are members of both the Rolling Stone Culture Council and the Fast Company Executive Board.
