Crypto Media Spent 2025 on the Back Foot, but These 10 Outlets Still Moved into 2026 in the Green

A news sector that loses a third of its readers in twelve months might look like one in retreat, at least at first glance. The latest Outset Data Pulse findings show exactly that kind of picture for crypto-native media in 2025. 

Across the year, crypto-native outlets brought in about one billion visits in total, but the monthly trend kept weakening: traffic started at around 106 million visits in January and ended the year at just under 71 million, leaving the category down by a little over 33% by December.

There were short rebounds along the way (July was the clearest one) but they did not hold for long. By the fourth quarter, crypto-native media was back at its weakest point of the year. At the same time, larger multi-topic outlets that also cover crypto were moving in the opposite direction, ending 2025 with audiences far bigger than the niche segment.

Image Source: Outset Data Pulse

Overall, the crypto-native category had a weak year overall, but it did not weaken evenly. That is the backdrop for the list of media outlets that still entered 2026 looking more stable than the market around them.

The list draws on Outset Media Index (OMI), the data layer behind Outset Data Pulse, which tracks more than 340 crypto publications alongside finance, tech, and general news sites with dedicated crypto coverage. 

The Metrics That Helped Identify More Resilient Reach

OMI brings together 37 metrics that look at media outlets from multiple angles. These metrics are spread across sections such as traffic and reach, SEO and AIO, audience engagement, and terms of publishing.

In the first section alone, OMI monitors indicators that include, but are not limited to:

• GEO Breakdown

• Average Traffic (three-month period) 

• Total Traffic (three-month period)

• Average Unique Traffic (three-month period) 

• Traffic Depth Ratio 

• Composite Score 

• Unique Score

For this particular shortlist, though, only two of the 37 metrics were used as the main filter. First came Average (Avg.) Traffic, pointing to the outlets that still have the largest reach on a more stable basis than a single-month change would suggest. The shortlist included outlets that showed the positive trend direction over the three-month window. 

Image Source: Outset Media Index (Team plan)

Composite Score (CS) added more depth to this dynamic: it helped rank those outlets based on how meaningful their growth really was. Higher CS signals that a media brand’s percentage growth translates into larger gains in users during the same timeframe, avoiding cases where a small outlet records a 400% traffic spike but brings in just 200 new visits from a base of 50 readers.

Top 10 Crypto Publications with the Largest Reach 

Here’s a closer look at the final list of crypto publications that combined strong reach with a healthy traffic pattern:

1. PANews

CS: 58.3

Avg. Traffic: 732,000 

PANews opens the list with one of the strongest traffic patterns in the group. After starting January at 530,600 visits, it moved up to 639,600 in February and then reached 1,000,000 in March, forming a steady growth curve. With total traffic of 2,200,000 across the quarter, it paired that upward movement with enough scale to make it significant.

1. Bloomingbit

CS: 25.9

Avg. Traffic: 1,100,000

Bloomingbit‘s traffic moved from 965,100 in January to 1,300,000 in February, then settled at 1,200,000 in March, leaving the quarter clearly above where it began. Most of that reach came from South Korea, which makes the outlet’s audience profile geographically concentrated.

1. The Block  

CS: 22.1

Avg. Traffic: 1,800,000

The Block brought one of the largest audience bases into this shortlist and stayed positive across all three months of the quarter. Traffic moved from 1,700,000 in January to 1,800,000 in February and then to 1,900,000 in March. Its Unique Score is the highest in this lineup, adding weight by indicating the predominantly authentic readership base.

1. ABMedia

CS: 20.6

Avg. Traffic: 528,600

ABMedia stayed on a steady upward track through the quarter, with traffic rising from 449,500 in January to 514,500 in February and then to 621,900 in March. The audience base is also concentrated, with Taiwan accounting for nearly three quarters of total reach, which makes it another regionally focused outlet in the list.

1. ForkLog 

CS: 18.8

Avg. Traffic: 518,800

ForkLog did not move dramatically at first, but it ended the quarter much stronger than it began. After a small rise from 463,800 in January to 470,900 in February, traffic climbed to 621,600 in March. The outlet’s reach was shaped mostly by Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

1. Decrypt 

CS: 18.7

Avg. Traffic: 1,000,000

Decrypt paired a million-level average traffic base with a quarter that kept moving in the right direction. Visits climbed from 948,300 in January to 1,000,000 in February and then to 1,100,000 in March, led mostly by readers in the United States.  

1. CoinDesk 

CS: 7.0

Avg. Traffic: 4,800,000

CoinDesk brought the biggest reach in this group by a wide margin, with 14,400,000 visits across the three-month period and an audience coming mainly from the United States. The traffic pattern remained positive, even if less smooth than the smaller outlets above, moving from 4,500,000 in January to 5,200,000 in February before easing to 4,600,000 in March.

1. TheBlockBeats 

CS: 3.1

Avg. Traffic: 855,000. 

TheBlockBeats sits toward the lower end of the group, with a quarter that dipped in the middle before ending stronger than it began. Traffic moved from 885,300 in January to 766,900 in February and then to 912,600 in March. Its audience profile is relatively broad, with India, China, and Brazil making up the largest shares.

1. Coinpedia 

CS: 1.6

Avg. Traffic: 577,400

Coinpedia also stayed in the list even though its traffic line dropped mid-quarter, falling from 606,300 in January to 505,500 in February before climbing to 620,400 in March. A Unique Score, which is one point lower than The Block, adds a bit more substance to that picture, suggesting the publication still has a decent level of real readership behind its reach.

1. Bits Media 

CS: 1.6

Avg. Traffic: 544,900

Bits Media had a more uneven quarter than some outlets above it, but it stayed in the mix with a meaningful reach base. Traffic moved from 505,700 in January to 610,200 in February, then eased to 518,800 in March, so the trend was less about steady buildup and more about holding on after a stronger middle month. Its audience was mostly concentrated in Russia, with Kazakhstan and Thailand following behind.

What to Take From This

The 2025 traffic slide told the truth about crypto media, but only at the category level. It showed that the market weakened. But it did not show which outlets were simply still large because they had always been large, which ones were holding up better than the rest, and which ones still had enough movement left to look more convincing once the quarter was broken down. 

That is the part a top-line trend tends to flatten, and it is also the reason a shortlist like this is worth doing in the first place.

Outset Media Index matters here not because it produces another ranking, but because it allows that broader story to be read at the outlet level. The ten names above are only one cut through the reach first, then a filter for traffic that was still moving in the right direction. 

For anyone who wants to look beyond Composite Score and average traffic metrics, OMI offers a more detailed view of the crypto media scene. 

Source: https://thebittimes.com/crypto-media-spent-2025-on-the-back-foot-but-these-10-outlets-still-moved-into-2026-in-the-green-tbt126539.html