Guide to the Best Blockchain and Cryptocurrency News in 2021

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Bankless HQ

Bankless HQ is home to a podcast and newsletter that started in March 2020, a pivotal point in blockchain history: Covid-19 was about to give the market its biggest crash ever, and the “DeFi Summer” that the months after came to be known as completely changed the value proposition for cryptocurrency.

Founded by Ryan Sean Adams and co-hosted by David Hoffman, the Bankless podcast focuses on the Ethereum-centric world of DeFi and has landed interviews with superstars like Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss, DeFi lynchpin Andre Cronje, and SEC Commissioner Hester Pearce.

While Bankless admits to an Ethereum-centric bias, a few listens might have you leaning that way, too.

The Block

Founded in 2018, The Block is a high-IQ crypto news site that brings digitally native experts to bear on the industry’s latest events.

Frank Chaparro, director of news, and Larry Cermak, director of research, are the twin brains behind much of The Block’s signature blend of reporting and analytics. Chaparro previously worked for Nasdaq, NPR, and Business Insider; Cermak briefly held roles at Google, Microsoft, and Ernst & Young.

Both Chaparro and Cermak are entertaining follows on Twitter, too, each acting as a skeleton key into the unregulated chaos of the social media cryptosphere. But they’re not the only big brains at The Block: even the interns are screened down to only those with the highest levels of crypto knowledge.

CoinDesk

If you just want something that looks more like MSNBC or CNN, you’d probably feel at home with CoinDesk.

Founded in 2013, it’s one of the most established cryptocurrency news sites, and it’s still referenced frequently by mainstream news sources when reporting on the industry. The news at CoinDesk can be a little dry, and is generally focused on macro-level, international events; this is part of a 2019 rebrand that includes a vision to serve the global investor.

The newer crypto news sites might consider CoinDesk a little too Boomer, but with age comes wisdom: CoinDesk’s users also have access to the site’s archived resources, which include articles, podcasts, videos, and topic-specific research.

CoinTelegraph

A long-serving veteran of the industry, CoinTelegraph is still the leading digital news resource when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency. While it’s retained some of its cartoonish aesthetic, the reporting can be startlingly in-depth for what was once a more seat-of-the-pants operation; those who checked in on CoinTelegraph in 2013 might find themselves checking the URL of the article they’re reading on the same site in 2021. Eight years is several lifetimes in the cryptosphere, but CoinTelegraph is as relevant as ever.

If you’re looking for more influencers to add to your social media feeds, CoinTelegraph’s yearly Top 100 is a good place to start.

Decrypt

Another 2018 upstart, Decrypt is a crypto news site backed by ConsenSys, one of the blockchain industry’s most girding forces. Decrypt’s mission is to demystify the decentralized web, and that means giving visitors a mix of long-reads, breaking news, and deep-dive explainers. It’s also a mission that’s reflected in Decrypt’s on-site wallet, where readers earn credits for reading, reacting to, and sharing content.

Despite the presence of learning content, there’s nothing too beginner-level about Decrypt. Their writers and editors have experience at legacy institutions like The Wall Street Journal, BBC, and Wired. And, in a vast cryptocurrency ecosystem that’s growing by the day, everyone needs a deep-dive explainer on something.

The Defiant

The Defiant is dedicated to the most cutting-edge corner of cryptocurrency: decentralized finance (DeFi). Its founder, Camila Russo, is the author of The Infinite Machine, the first authoritative book to be written on the origins of the Ethereum network, which houses much of DeFi’s central architecture; she’s also worked as a Bloomberg News reporter covering markets in New York, Madrid, and Buenos Aires.

At The Defiant, readers can find the latest DeFi news and analysis; they can also catch up on how to take advantage of the latest DeFi opportunities on a variety of different cryptocurrency chains. The Defiant has a newsletter, podcast, news feed, and instructional library, all of which are of use to even the most advanced DeFi user.

Uncommon Core

A blog and podcast for those interested in the most bleeding-edge discussions coming out of blockchain today, Uncommon Core is focused on the transformative nature of trust-minimized currencies and financial services. Its hosts are Hasu, one of the industry’s top researchers, and Su Zhu, the CEO of Three Arrows Capital, one of the most influential investment groups in cryptocurrency.

This is not a beginner’s level resource, and that’s part of its value proposition: unlike watered-down mainstream news articles, Uncommon Core lets you listen in on what cryptocurrency’s top minds are interested in. But that doesn’t mean the content is inaccessible, either: Uncommon Core’s research into EIP-1559, a critical Ethereum update, puts an otherwise extraordinarily complex subject into nearly understandable terms.

Additional Resources for Cryptocurrency Analytics

If you want to read the runes behind what creates cryptocurrency news, there are a host of on-chain analytics you can turn to. The resources below will require a more firm understanding of cryptocurrency’s infrastructure, but those building blockchain applications and decentralized applications (dApps) will have them all bookmarked.

  • ETH Gas Station: When it comes to cryptocurrencies, and especially DeFi, the cost of transactions is as important as the price of oil is to traditional markets. ETH Gas Station monitors the price of transactions on the Ethereum network, including which entities are spending the most, and which transactions are processing the fastest.
  • DappRadar: One of the biggest evolutions in cryptocurrency was the introduction of the decentralized application (dApp), which utilizes blockchain wallets injected into web content. DappRadar tracks which dApps are being used the most, and which ones are trending up and down.
  • Coin Market Cap: For years, CoinMarketCap has been the go-to price aggregator for the thousands of cryptocurrencies on the market. Founded in 2013, it was purchased by Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, in 2020. That purchase has sent some cryptocurrency purists to a rival site, CoinGecko, or even further afield. But everyone has to get their prices from somewhere, and CoinMarketCap remains the most referenced price-tracking site for crypto assets.
  • IntoTheBlock: IntoTheBlock is a data science firm that pulls insights from all the complex on-chain metrics that most people barely understand if they know about at all. Frequently referenced by researchers and journalists at The Block and Decrypt, it’s a go-to source for blockchain analytics, market predictions, and DeFi indicators. While some of the functions lay behind a paywall, the free content is generally enough for hobbyists.
  • DeFi Pulse: DeFi Pulse tracks analytics and rankings of protocols within DeFi’s $59 billion corner of the cryptocurrency world. And, even as DeFi works towards building a bankless world, there are still central players in DeFi who are as important as Bank of America and Chase; DeFi Pulse tracks them all.

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