Crypto brands still treat the US as the highest-stakes media market for one simple reason: a strong US narrative tends to travel globally. Coverage and commentary from US outlets can shape investor perception, partnership momentum, and even how regulators, institutions, and founders in other regions interpret a project’s legitimacy. At the same time, the US doesn’t behave like most Asian or European crypto media segments. It’s less centralized around a few “local-language habit” destinations and more defined by a constant push-pull between crypto-native speed and mainstream financial standards with audiences moving between the two depending on market sentiment, policy headlines, and macro news. That makes US PR less about “being visible” and more about being credible in multiple arenas at once. What makes the US crypto media market different The US is a tiered media market where influence concentrates at the top. A relatively small set of English-language publishers capture a disproportionate share of attention, so broad pitching without a tier strategy tends to produce scattered coverage with limited impact. According to Outset PR’s latest US crypto media analysis , overall crypto-native media traffic contracted by 33.5% across the quarter (October to December), while AI referrals rose to 25.6% of referral-driven discovery, signaling that loyalty, algorithmic distribution, and machine-mediated search are increasingly shaping how stories are found, shared, and trusted heading into 2026. This guide outlines the steps crypto projects, exchanges, Web3 platforms, and blockchain startups can take to build structured, credible, and measurable PR campaigns for the US market—designed for Tier-1 reach, mainstream validation, and growing AI-era discoverability. 1. Why “tiers” matter in the US: it’s an attention oligopoly, not a flat media map According to Outset PR’ report, the US crypto-native media market has reached oligopoly status, where the Tier-1 cohort absorbs 95.25% of demand. In other words: most of the audience is concentrated in the top layer, and the long tail competes for marginal attention. Tier breakdown (crypto-native outlets) Outset PR categorized 82 US crypto-native outlets into three tiers by traffic volume: Tier 1 (400K+ monthly visits): 53 outlets capturing 95.25% of total traffic. Notable examples include CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, BeInCrypto, CryptoNews, NewsBTC. Outset calls this the “Too Big to Fail” layer where coverage is the only thing that moves the needle for broad retail awareness. Tier 2 (130K–399K monthly visits): 18 outlets, 3.81% of total traffic. Outset describes this tier as a “middle-income trap” — real overhead, limited algorithmic favor — and notes the “middle class” of crypto media has largely evaporated. Tier 3 ( PR implication: plan placements by tier, because each tier does a different job If you treat “US media” as one list, you’ll optimize for the wrong outcome. A tiered market forces you to build a tiered campaign: Tier 1 = reach + legitimacy (the needle-movers) Use Tier-1 crypto-native outlets for broad retail awareness and narrative scale. Outset’s point is blunt: this layer “is the market.” Your goal here is: clear positioning + proof points + repeat visibility, not one-off announcements. Mainstream = institutional credibility + policy/markets framing Treat mainstream finance outlets as a separate motion: tighter sourcing, stronger restraint, clearer policy/market relevance. Their concentration means wins here are rare but high-signal. Tier 2 = targeted relevance (but don’t over-weight it) Tier-2 outlets can be great for niche narratives and consistent coverage, but they won’t deliver scale. Use them to reinforce positioning, support SEO/AI citation footprints, and target specific segments. Tier 3 = specialist depth + experimentation Use selectively for technical verticals, niche communities, or formats that punch above weight (some small outlets can overperform in AI discoverability or specific query niches, per Outset’s broader AI discussion). 2. Don’t treat “US media” as one bucket: crypto-native vs mainstream behave differently Outset PR tracked both crypto-native outlets and mainstream financial media with crypto coverage to compare discovery composition. One standout divergence: mainstream outlets capture less AI traffic overall, and even when measured as a share of referrals, AI referrers represent 12.89% of mainstream referrals vs 25.61% for crypto-native. This trend can be explained by two factors: first, crypto-native outlets publish narrowly scoped, prompt-friendly content that AI systems cite second, mainstream outlets are written for broad audiences and can be summarized without routing traffic outward (plus paywalls and slower cycles reduce outbound incentives) For PR, the implication is to build two pitch motions: Mainstream pitch: institutional framing, policy/market context, credibility, restraint Crypto-native pitch: specificity, metrics, “how it works,” fast-turn updates, structured facts 3. The US market rewards audience ownership: direct traffic stays king One of the most important findings: direct traffic is still the largest channel, at 44.02% of visits to U.S. crypto-native media. Even in a contracting market, audiences keep going back to sources they trust, signaling habitual relationships with trusted publishers. PR implication: You can’t run US crypto PR as if discovery is always paid or algorithmic. Earned placements that strengthen brand recall (and drive repeat searching/return visits) matter more than one-off “announcement hits.” What this changes in execution: prioritize repeatable relationships with a shortlist of outlets (not one-and-done pitching) invest in spokespeople + commentary that journalists can return to across cycles build owned assets that people bookmark (US readers are “research-mode” heavy) 4. Optimize for AI discovery from day one The most structurally important shift in the US report: AI referrals now constitute 25.61% of all referral traffic across tracked crypto-native outlets. Outset PR explicitly frames this as “machine discovery” becoming a competitive battleground, with AI referrers including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and other AI research tools. They also describe AI performance as bimodal: a minority of outlets sit under 20% AI referrer share, while many cluster above 30–40%, suggesting AI optimization behaves like a threshold—intentional structure yields outsized gains. PR implication: In the US, PR now has two parallel visibility lanes: narrative visibility (earned media + top-tier credibility) answer visibility (AI citation layers + machine-readable content) To win the AI lane without losing credibility: ship AI-readable press materials (clear entities, dates, definitions, metrics) maintain a “citation backbone” on owned pages (FAQs, docs, research posts) avoid vague positioning; AI tools reward specificity (“what is it / how it works / proof”) 5. X becomes the main social battlefield (but don’t make it your only one) Outset PR’s report reveals that for U.S. crypto-native media, X accounts for about 70.87% of social traffic, making it the primary social discovery engine. The report also warns about platform fragility: X provides speed and reach, but a strategy built only on X hands distribution power to a single opaque algorithm—so diversification (e.g., Reddit/YouTube) matters for durable trust and depth. How to build PR around that: Integrate X into every launch choreography: Coordinate embargo lifts, article drops, founder threads and investor amplification. Prepare tweet-length stats and quotable lines that journalists can reuse. Keep media-facing accounts active and reachable: Founders and comms leads should be visible, responsive, and open to DMs. Many U.S. editors will reach out faster on X than via email when a story is breaking. Use X for narrative maintenance, not just spikes: Comment on regulation, macro moves and major hacks or failures – calmly and with expertise. Build a track record as a sober explainer, not just another hype account. Balance X with depth channels. Use Reddit for long-form AMAs, technical discussions and community governance. Use YouTube for explainers, dev talks and thought-leadership interviews. A robust U.S. crypto PR campaign treats X as the “front line” for speed and amplification, supported by slower-burn channels that actually build conviction. 6. Build your campaign like a portfolio: Tier-1 reach + specialty + AI-shaped outlets Outset PR emphasizes the compounding nature of algorithmic authority and describes the US attention structure as highly stratified, even quantifying inequality via a Gini coefficient of 0.62 for the sector. In plain terms: big outlets have inertia, and “mid-tier” mobility is hard. PR implication: Your plan should deliberately combine: Tier-1 credibility hits (for awareness + legitimacy) Specialty outlets (for niche audiences: infra, DeFi, compliance, devs, institutions) AI-optimized publishers (for research-mode visibility and machine citations) This is how you avoid over-optimizing for one metric (reach) while missing the other (discoverability). A practical 6–8 week US PR blueprint Weeks 1–2: Foundations messaging house: 3–4 pillars + “claim discipline” (everything defensible) AI-readable press kit + a US-focused FAQ page (crawlable, not PDF-only) spokesperson brief: clear, cautious, quoteable Weeks 3–4: Credibility wave 1–2 top-tier briefings (institutional framing) 2–3 crypto-native exclusives (product specifics + metrics) one “research asset” (report, benchmark, methodology post) Weeks 4–6: Distribution wave X-native comms (tight threads, quotes, short clips) podcast/webinar placements (US buyers love voice-based trust) Reddit/YouTube/community placements where relevant (depth) Weeks 6–8: AI + compounding publish supporting pages that AI tools can cite (definitions, comparisons, how-it-works) refresh evergreen explainers tied to current narratives (regulatory, security, adoption) continue reactive commentary to become a “go-to source” Closing thought: Turning data into an advantage to run effective campaigns for crypto in the US The U.S. crypto media market is no longer a “move fast and pitch everyone” environment. It’s an oligopoly with a shrinking attention pool, a powerful loyalty layer, and AI systems quietly mediating what gets seen and trusted. Outset PR’s analysis of U.S. crypto media gives founders and marketing teams a clear map of that terrain. Built into a smart PR strategy – one that respects tier-1 concentration, treats X and AI as core infrastructure, and aims to grow loyalty rather than just reach – it becomes a competitive edge. The teams that internalize this architecture early will be the ones whose stories still get told when the next cycle hits and the noise returns.
