Crypto's Identity Crisis: When Every Logo Looks the Same
Too many blue hexagons, too many geometric abstractions. Crypto has a sameness problem — and the projects that break the pattern gain an outsized brand advantage.
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Open any cryptocurrency exchange and scroll through the token listings. You will see blue hexagons, blue circles, blue triangles, and blue abstract shapes that could be swapped between projects without anyone noticing. The cryptocurrency industry has a sameness problem, and it is more than a design inconvenience. It is a branding failure that costs projects recognition, trust, and market share.
The Blue Hexagon Epidemic
At any given time, roughly 30 to 40 percent of top-100 tokens use blue as their primary color. Add blue as a secondary color and the figure climbs above 50 percent. Hexagons are the second most common shape after circles, appearing in the logos of Chainlink, Internet Computer, and dozens of smaller projects. Combined with blue, the hexagon produces a template so generic it could represent virtually any technology company.
In a 2023 informal study by a crypto design community on X, participants were shown 20 lesser-known crypto logos with names removed and asked to match them to projects. Average accuracy was below 15 percent, essentially random chance. The same test with consumer brands (Nike, Apple, McDonald's) exceeded 90 percent accuracy.
Why Sameness Happens
The trust equation. Blue is consistently the most trusted color in branding research, associated with reliability and security. Every project reaches the same conclusion: if blue signals trust, use blue. The problem is universal adoption of identical logic.
The tech template. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Intel, IBM, Dell, Samsung, and PayPal all use blue. Crypto founders, most from tech backgrounds, unconsciously default to the industry's visual norms.
Geometric efficiency. Hexagons tile a plane with no gaps, making them a popular metaphor for blockchain networks. They appear in molecular structures and honeycomb patterns, carrying connotations of natural efficiency.
Safety of following. If Ethereum's blue-gray worked for the second-largest cryptocurrency, blue-gray seems proven. If Chainlink's hexagon worked for the largest oracle, hexagons must resonate. New projects copy successful ones, and the template becomes increasingly generic.
Fear of standing out. A pink unicorn or dog face might alienate conservative investors. A blue hexagon looks safe. But safe is invisible.
The Cost of Being Invisible
Reduced brand recall. If users cannot distinguish your logo from ten similar ones, they cannot build mental associations between your brand and product.
Weakened trust signals. Paradoxically, when every project uses "trustworthy blue," the visual cue loses differentiating power. Users cannot distinguish legitimate projects from imitators.
Exchange listing disadvantage. Tokens display as small circular icons, typically 24 to 48 pixels. At this size, two blue hexagons become effectively identical.
Community identity deficit. Strong brands create communities that rally around distinctive visual elements. Compare the passionate visual culture around Dogecoin or Uniswap to the muted identity of interchangeable blue geometric logos.
Projects That Broke the Pattern
Uniswap chose a pink unicorn, an aggressively non-corporate mascot in a color no other major crypto project uses. You cannot confuse it with any other brand.
Dogecoin used a photograph of a real dog in Comic Sans, violating every principle of professional design. The result is arguably the most recognizable crypto logo after Bitcoin.
Avalanche chose a bold red triangle. Red is rare in crypto because it is associated with losses on trading charts. Avalanche turned this into an advantage: impossible to miss on an exchange listing page, and the intensity aligns with its high-performance narrative.
Solana uses a purple-to-teal gradient not found in any other major cryptocurrency. The gradient itself is the brand signature.
Solutions
Choose a non-blue color. Orange worked for Bitcoin. Pink worked for Uniswap. Red worked for Avalanche. Trust is built through product quality and community, not color alone.
Use unique shapes. Avoid hexagons and generic geometric abstractions unless there is a specific, defensible reason. Custom shapes, letterforms, and mascots provide stronger differentiation.
Incorporate narrative. The most memorable logos tell stories. Uniswap's unicorn tells a story of impossibility achieved. Dogecoin's dog tells a story of community and humor. Chainlink's isometric hexagon tells a story of bridging two worlds. Logos that embody narrative create emotional connections that abstract shapes cannot match.
Invest in custom typography. Even if the mark is geometric, custom typography provides differentiation. A distinctive wordmark carries brand identity in contexts where the icon is too small to read. Many crypto projects use generic sans-serif fonts that further compound the sameness problem.
Test at small sizes. Every crypto logo will display as a tiny circle on exchange apps. If your logo is indistinguishable from competitors at 24 pixels, it is not doing its job. Design and test at the smallest display size first, then scale up.
The Convergence Trap
The ultimate irony of crypto's sameness problem is that it is self-defeating. Each project copies the blue hexagon template to look credible, but when every project looks the same, none of them look credible. The template that was supposed to signal trust instead signals interchangeability, which is the opposite of what a brand should communicate.
The projects that will win the branding war in crypto are the ones with the courage to look different. In a market with thousands of competing tokens, visual distinction is not a luxury. It is a survival requirement. The blue hexagon is not a safe choice. In a sea of blue hexagons, the apparently safe choice is the riskiest choice of all.