Concrete Achievements and Coherent Plans: Storytelling of Roadmaps in Crypto Crowdfunding

Crypto crowdfunding has become a key financing channel for blockchain-based start-ups, yet ineffective projectinvestor communication contributes to fundraising failures. This study investigates how linguistic framing in project roadmaps, specifically, the presentation of achieved versus planned milestones, influences fundraising success. Drawing on construal level theory, we argue that achieved milestones benefit from concrete language, while planned milestones are more effective when conveyed through coherent language. We analyzed 1507 crypto crowdfunding campaigns and measured milestone concreteness and coherence using established computational linguistics techniques and large language models. Regression results show that fundraising success is positively associated with the concreteness of achieved milestones and the coherence of planned milestones. These findings suggest that aligning linguistic style with information hypotheticality (i.e., achieved vs. planned) can significantly enhance investor confidence, offering actionable guidance for start-up fundraising campaigns.