Four in five crypto-native media outlets across Western Europe saw traffic decline in Q1 2025. That’s the topline finding from Outset PR’s latest report, which tracked 133 regional publications using SimilarWeb, Ahrefs, and internal Google Discover data. And it raises a fundamental question: How does an industry with rising public enthusiasm lose 80% of its visibility in just three months? This isn’t the first time Outset PR has mapped such a decline. Its earlier Q1 report documented a similar contraction across LATAM crypto outlets. The Western European findings now confirm that this pattern isn’t isolated but systemic. Despite Bitcoin’s 2024 bull run and rising adoption across Europe, the news sites built to cover that momentum failed to keep pace. The result, as Outset PR’s data shows, is a media ecosystem strained by new compliance demands, platform volatility, and an inability to adapt at scale. A Perfect Storm for Crypto Media Visibility MiCA’s implementation on December 30, 2024, was most likely the main culprit. New advertising guidelines and regulatory warnings forced changes in how crypto products could be promoted or even discussed. For example, Spain’s financial regulator, CNMV, rolled out strict rules for crypto advertising, which, in early 2025, led to crypto news sites in Spain losing advertising income and reader exposure. In Germany, BaFin’s stance on unlicensed crypto promotions meant some publishers catering to German audiences were penalized or de-listed in search results if they didn’t adjust content. Even outside the EU, in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority’s tightened rules on crypto marketing contributed to a more cautious approach by platforms. In short, direct regulatory pressure created the first stage of headwinds that crypto media faced in early 2025. The second wave stems from Google’s core search update in March, which cracked down on low-value content. Many smaller crypto sites that had thrived on quick news bites or AI-generated articles saw their rankings plummet overnight. Additionally, Google Discover, a major traffic source for mobile users, started to demote several crypto outlets, especially those lacking unique content or proper compliance measures. Traffic share by country across Western Europe in Q1, 2025: data sourced from Outset PR Who Fell Behind, And Who Survived Outset PR’s data indicates that the downturn was widespread but not uniform. Language and geography played a role in the severity of the declines: Southern Europe Hit Hard In Italy and Spain, roughly 70% of crypto news sites saw traffic drop sharply by February. Italian outlets, such as the local editions of Cointelegraph and CryptoNews, were hit by early-2025 compliance advisories from regulators, and most failed to recover by March. Spain’s crypto media similarly struggled. Only Bit2Me News, an outlet backed by a popular exchange, bucked the trend with a 108% traffic surge in Q1. Overall, these markets faced some of the steepest media contractions under MiCA’s early influence. German-Language Correction Nearly 40% of all the crypto outlets tracked were German-language, serving readers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This segment went through an intense correction. By mid-quarter, 62% of German-focused sites saw major traffic declines, partially due to BaFin taking great concern to what it considered investment advice in disguise. Notable casualties included independent blogs like Coin-Update (down over 50% in Q1) and even international franchises like Cointelegraph DE (down 63%). A handful of German-language sites did manage growth, about 26%, chiefly those that took early action on MiCA compliance or had strong backing. For instance, CoinJournal’s German edition could leverage its position within the large Investoo Group holding, along with its UK parent company’s SEO and marketing expertise, to expand its reach despite the headwinds. France’s Mixed Fortunes French crypto media experienced a sector-wide drop in visibility (about 72% of sites lost traffic in Q1), but the causes were more nuanced. The French regulator, AMF, emphasized transparency in communications rather than aggressive bans, yet Google’s algorithms didn’t spare outlets with thin or duplicative content. Sites like The Blog and CryptoNews France lost over 40% of their traffic. On the other hand, a few French outlets adapted quickly, InvestX and Blockchain France actually saw growth by localizing content and adding clear risk disclaimers, proving that adaptation was possible amid the downturn. The Dutch and Benelux Dip The Dutch-speaking crypto scene (covering the Netherlands and Flanders) is one of Western Europe’s largest, yet it proved highly vulnerable to SEO changes. Approximately 76% of Dutch-language crypto sites lost traffic in February alone. Even high-traffic staples like Bitcoin Magazine NL and Crypto Insiders felt the pain of Google’s content update. Only two sites in this group ended the quarter with positive growth: Beste Bank (a niche educational platform) and CoinMarketCap’s Dutch edition, both up by only single-digit percentages. Their slight edge came from strong content niches and direct user followings, which provided some insulation from search volatility. UK and Others The UK’s crypto media, though outside MiCA’s direct jurisdiction, didn’t escape unscathed. Under new UK advertising and promotion rules, nearly every tracked UK-focused crypto outlet saw traffic decline. Small community sites like CryptoUK and Bitcourier struggled to stay relevant. The few gainers, such as The Market Periodical, succeeded by diversifying their content and launching localized international sections to tap into wider audiences. This shows that even without MiCA, broader market forces and local regulations put pressure on crypto outlets in English-speaking Europe. In total, Outset PR found that only 18% of the crypto-native outlets they tracked managed to grow their traffic in Q1 2025. And even among those, most gains were relatively small in absolute terms. Many of the “winners” were niche sites starting from a low base, their double- or triple-digit percentage growth is impressive but still leaves them under 100,000 monthly visits on average. The sole exception among top-tier players was Newsbit.nl, a leading Dutch portal, which managed to finish the quarter slightly up and remained above 1 million monthly readers. This underlines an important point: amid the region-wide collapse in visibility, only the most resourceful or well-prepared outlets emerged in a strong enough position to continue operating under a business-as-usual assumption. Data-Driven Evidence of a Shake-Up Crucially, Outset PR’s report backs these observations with hard data. The agency aggregated publicly available SimilarWeb traffic estimates and SEO metrics (via Ahrefs) for 133 sites, 87 crypto-native publications, and 46 mainstream finance/tech news platforms with crypto sections. The analysis shows that the downturn in crypto-specialist media was not just anecdotal but quantifiable and widespread. Overall, traffic to crypto-native media in Western Europe fell by 16% from January to March 2025, aligning with the finding that about 82% of these sites saw declines. This pattern held even as crypto adoption in Europe kept growing, highlighting a disconnect between consumer interest and where those consumers get their news. By contrast, many mainstream outlets with dedicated crypto sections held steady or even grew during the same period. Over half of the general news and financial sites in the study (54%) enjoyed Q1 traffic growth. These sites, like Germany’s Finanzen.net or France’s Boursier.com, benefit from high domain authority and diversified content. They weren’t as exposed to Google’s targeted downranking of niche crypto content, and they already adhere to compliance best practices that regulators expect. In fact, mainstream finance portals in Europe amassed over four times the web traffic of all crypto-only outlets combined in Q1 2025. This imbalance suggests that casual readers might be gravitating towards broader news sources for crypto updates when specialist sites falter. In other words, the audience didn’t disappear, it shifted to a handful of platforms that pair crypto news with other financial or tech coverage. Distribution of generalist traffic by media tier in Q1, 2025: data sourced from Outset PR A Market-Wide Realignment All signs point to the crypto media landscape entering a period of realignment rather than a temporary blip. The forces at play, regulatory oversight via MiCA and country-specific laws, search engine algorithm shifts, and changing user behaviors, are structural. Crypto-native outlets in Western Europe are learning that covering a regulation-sensitive industry demands a new level of professionalism and agility. Those that adapt (by improving content quality, implementing proper disclosures, investing in SEO resiliency, and even partnering with larger media networks for support) have a path forward. Those that don’t may continue to see their hard-won audiences slip away. For public relations and communications teams in the crypto sector, the takeaway is equally clear. Achieving visibility in Western Europe now requires a more nuanced, multi-channel strategy. Relying solely on niche crypto sites is risky when 4 out of 5 of them are losing ground. Instead, savvy PR campaigns are mixing placements in top-tier finance and tech outlets for mass reach and credibility, while still engaging specialized crypto communities with targeted content. Outset PR’s Q1 report serves as a wake-up call: in an environment where MiCA and Google’s algorithms increasingly determine who gets seen, only the most adaptable media outlets will thrive, and only the most adaptable media strategies will succeed.Specializing in crypto PR backed by verifiable data, Outset PR continues to track the latest media trends in real time, with live insights, charts, and regional dynamics shared regularly via their website blog and X profile. Post navigation Top-Ranked Web3 Podcast QuickSwap’s “The Aggregated” Celebrated 100th Anniversary with Blockbuster Episode
