Crypto press release distribution services have become a tool for dubious projects to bypass third-party controls and create the illusion of legitimacy, a new report from Chainstory shows.
The researchers reviewed 2,893 publications sent out between June and November last year. They found that more than 60% came from projects with “classic red flags,” such as an anonymous team making unrealistic claims, copy-paste websites, and aggressive tactics to scare investors into action. Some were outright scams that were verified as fraudulent by cross-referencing with blacklists and active fraud alerts.
Unlike established, traditional distribution services, crypto-focused press threads often have deals that guarantee placement on dozens of sites with little oversight. These paid placements often appear alongside actual news, sometimes without clear labels, making it difficult for readers to tell the difference.
“If you stumble across a crypto press release on a news site, the odds are better than 50/50 that the project behind it is of low credibility (or worse),” the researchers wrote in the report published Tuesday.
Most of the releases were self-authored marketing announcements about minor product updates, token sales or IPOs, the team said. Only about 2% reported meaningful news like venture funding or acquisitions, types of stories that would typically earn editorial coverage.
CoinDesk reached out to several press outlets, but none had responded by the time of publication.
Pay to show
At the center is the relationship between distribution services and websites. The wires act as a pipeline that pushes out content for a fee, while the sites charge to display it without editorial filtering, according to the report.
To the casual reader, it may look like coverage by reputable media, although no journalist reported the story and the claims in the release are unverified.
This tactic is not limited to startups. Major exchanges regularly push press releases announcing each token listing to create a sense of constant activity, the researchers noted. There is no suggestion that the exchanges are involved in wrongdoing.
However, the scattergun approach increases search engine visibility, clutters news feeds, and blurs the line between reporting and promotion, while giving otherwise unproven or high-risk projects a veneer of undeserved legitimacy.
“The core mechanism of the crypto press release industry is piggybacking,” the study said. “By channeling content through syndication networks, publishers avoid the ‘newsworthiness’ filter of a newsroom and instead rely on the credibility of the distribution platform.”
In an example from December, fraudsters used fake branding to impersonate Circle Internet (CRCL), the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. The publication promoted a fake tokenized metal platform and linked to what appeared to be a wallet draining site. The publication was denied by CoinDesk, but only after appearing on several news sites.
While some news outlets have begun to label or limit press release content, the lack of clear standards and editorial filters remains a vulnerability in the crypto media ecosystem, the report said.
