❄️Welcome to 2024! from the ACJR ❄️
The best crypto and blockchain journalism and research from January 2024
The most welcoming, inviting image possible for this brand spanking new year: Midjourney
First off, it’s a new year, and we have a new board!
Our new 2024 officers and board of directors
President - Molly Jane Zuckerman, opinion editor Blockworks and co-founder of the ACJR
Vice President - Sam Reynolds, senior reporter at CoinDesk
Treasurer - Mitchell Moos, consultant
At-Large Board Members:
Phil Gomes, CCMO, Bloq Inc.
Connor Sephton, freelance journalist
Pero Solimano, writer of La Cadena
Aaron Stanley, founder, Brazil Crypto Report and Editorial Director at Filecoin Foundation
Putting on my presidential hat briefly (this is Molly Jane here for this intro), I’m greatly looking forward to what the ACJR can do this year — after the disaster that 2023 was for crypto journalism in many ways, I’m looking forward to more in-person meetups, educational seminars for new journos and more goodies for our ACJR members. (Although we can’t say that 2024 has gotten off to such an amazing start for crypto journalism, with Bitcoin ETF approval confusion and sadly more journalism layoffs).
However, with some good things already in the air — an ACJR meet-up at ETHDenver, this newsletter coming back to life — I’m still pretty darn optimistic about what kind of stories we’ll be able to tell in crypto this year.
The ACJR is running an anonymous crypto salary survey. Ever been curious if you’re getting fair pay in the industry? Fill out this fully confidential survey, and we’ll share the results soon.
Now, let’s get started with the newsletter! Since we lacked a winter newsletter, we’re going to include some of our favorite, timeless stories from November and December (we make the rules, and the rules say that this journalism deserves a shoutout even now).
If you’re a journalist, a researcher or a writer that thinks their stuff should be featured in our next newsletter, let us know in the comments or on Twitter!
₿ 😎 ₿
Top crypto journalism in January
Here are a few of our favorite stories from this winter — ranging from crypto funds run by grifters, a new wave of NFT buzz and an in-depth dive into a Bitcoin mine way out in the Himalayas.
This crypto fund says it tripled investors’ money. The catch? It’s owned by a convicted fraudster by Tim Craig, DL News
Bhutan built a Bitcoin mine on the site of its failed ‘education city’ by Iain Martin and Sarah Emerson, Forbes
MetaMask's secret project could shake up how Ethereum works by Sam Kessler, Coindesk
Did law enforcement in Finland crack Monero’s privacy technologies? by Protos staff, Protos
Su Zhu recommends prison for all, in an attempt to rebuild a reputation by Daniel Kuhn, Coindesk *opinion
Here we go again: Pet rock JPEGs on bitcoin, ethereum sell for over $100K by Sander Lutz, Decrypt
Drama at Solana: Creation of new corporate entity raises questions of ‘decentralization theater’ by Ben Weiss, Fortune
And now — it’s research time.
₿ 😎 ₿
Top crypto research & policy in January
Genuine DeFi as critical infrastructure: A conceptual framework for combating illicit finance activity in decentralized finance by Rebecca Rettig, Polygon Labs, Michael Mosier, Arktouros pllc; ex/ante and Katja Gilman, Polygon Labs
Do artists perceive blockchain as a new revenue opportunity? A social representation study of the Korean music industry by Yujun Park and Seongcheol Kim, Nature
Toward multidimensional Solana fees by Theo Diamandis, Research Partner, Bain Capital Crypto, Tarun Chitra, CEO, Gauntlet and @0xShitTrader, Cofounder, Ellipsis Labs
₿ 😎 ₿
Top crypto unhinged tweet in January
This requires no explanation
₿ 😎 ₿
Also this month, the ACJR and the Crypto Communications Collective have an in-person event at ETH Denver — TechTalks: Exploring Tomorrow's Trends. (No pitching allowed!).
₿ 😎 ₿
January’s op-ed on…crypto journalism, AI and how coverage can change
By Kieren Weisert
About two years ago, CNN published a digital article with the now infamous headline “How a scoop by a little-known crypto site led to the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried and implosion of FTX.”
That “little-known crypto site?” CoinDesk. The same publication with millions of monthly readers. The same publication that currently has over three million followers on Twitter.
A cryptocurrency trade publication had broken the biggest financial news story of the year and as a result redefined the future of the sector itself. At the expense of its now former owner DCG no less!
The headline’s backhanded compliment aside, the message was clear: crypto reporting at pure crypto publications had hit the big time. Its journalists could definitively, once and for all, no longer be dismissed as mere “amateurs,” “fans” or “bloggers.”
But for crypto companies, including their communications and legal compliance departments, another alarm bell should have gone off: the standard for integrity in crypto must be higher because crypto media has a greater capacity to keep them honest than often seen in finance and technology news.
This is a structural benefit to Web3 that is even unpossessed in the space of artificial intelligence (AI), which recently supplanted blockchain as the perceived newly crowned king of emerging technology.
Let me explain.
Trade publications are often underestimated. We expect that major investigative reports will be published by top-tier outlets such as The New York Times. By publications with large budgets and influence across the globe. How can trades, which are often regional, compete?
But crypto has some of the most influential trade publications of any sector, period.
The consensus is that crypto has five ‘major’ publications with coverage that spans the entire planet: Blockworks, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Decrypt and The Block.
Just last year, Blockworks was valued at $135M, over half of the amount Jeff Bezos spent to acquire The Washington Post.
Effectively, there are five cryptocurrency publications, with resources, that are collecting information on crypto and blockchain companies around the clock. Given the plethora of reporters and diversity of beats available, they do not have to just cover the largest, most influential companies in the space in detail. They can also really look into crypto’s startups and middle market companies as well.
I’m not saying CoinDesk’s Ian Allison, who is not formally an investigative journalist but instead covers institutional adoption, is Batman, the world’s greatest detective.
I’m saying any of these reporters can become Batman, accounting for clearly capable editors and the time afforded for them to both form deep connections in the crypto space and pour over company materials as Ian did with Alameda Research.
And yes, we must acknowledge that even the media is not immune from being influenced. After all, The Block itself was embroiled in controversy when its former CEO failed to disclose loans the company received from SBF. But I do believe The Block, and other crypto publications, learned from this experience and emerged stronger in their integrity from it.
Furthermore, these are not publications that companies with well-formed media strategies can choose to ignore either. Being held accountable by crypto media is the price of entry for all they can offer a company.
Often trade media outlets can have pieces which garner more real viewers and conversation than some of the top-tier outlets. The viewers of trade publications are also far more highly attuned to the space, which can help in terms of generating business leads. The prevalence of Crypto Twitter™ amplifies organic conversation of trade articles to a degree that is unique to the space.
Not to mention what is at stake for startups and middle market companies which really need to build their brands and may struggle to get covered regularly by The Times or The Wall Street Journal, but also even by holistic tech outlets such as TechCrunch.
Because there are so many top-flight crypto trade media outlets, there is a far greater quantity and diversity of stories about the sector being published. This means more opportunities for companies to have their initiatives covered but also for executives to be quoted by providing thought leadership commentary on key industry trends.
A lot has been made of AI momentarily garnering the venture funding and national attention that crypto used to have, but the space does lack one key thing that crypto does have: it does not have industry-specific trade publications at the same scale of crypto’s ‘big five.’
This means fewer dedicated AI reporters who can deep dive into what is truly happening at companies, both large and small. Fewer stories by them results in fewer opportunities for companies to be held accountable which could result in fraud or other unethical practices never being revealed.
But for crypto companies, the litmus for integrity has been elevated because crypto media has the means to keep them honest.
And for companies with robust value propositions, there is an additional reward for doing things the right way: a developed media & branding express lane in the trades.
Kieren Weisert is a branding & risk management communications consultant for Prosek Partners, advising clients working in the intersection of finance and technology. In his previous role at The TASC Group, he advised clients, which included nationally prominent litigators and crypto developers, on sensitive legal & crisis issues. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.
₿ 😎 ₿
Find the ACJR on Telegram and Twitter.
Join the ACJR
It’s easy to join the ACJR — journalist memberships are only $25 a year. If you want access to our members’ only chat, discounts for conferences and invites to meetups, sign up below.
Reach out to Joyce Pavia Hanson: @JPHanson on Telegram for any more questions.