Increasingly, information impacting the crypto market is not coming from journalists, but from paid press releases.
An analysis of 2,893 crypto-related press releases issued between June 2025 and November 2025 reveals that these distribution systems are operating as a parallel news market, capable of creating sentiment trends and causing temporary price volatility, even before the information is verified.
Over 60% of issuances come from high-risk projects.
One study found that 62% of announcements originated from high-risk projects (35.6%) or overt scams (26.9%). Meanwhile, 27% were low-risk and 10% were Medium risk.
Unlike articles edited and assessed for credibility by journalists, press release publishing systems only superficially check the content submitted by clients. This makes it easier for inaccurate or exaggerated information to reach a wide audience, thereby impacting property prices.
Only 2% of the press releases (58 articles) covered significant events such as Capital rounds, mergers , or research. Nearly 50% were about product updates or new features, while 24% related to trading and listings . Much of the content was repetitive, making it uninteresting for reputable news outlets to explore.
Analysis of tone revealed that only 10% of the press releases were objective, while 54% were exaggerated and 19% were overtly promotional.
In total, approximately 70% of the press releases contained overt advertising elements, using words such as "revolutionary," "breakthrough," or "leading the future of Web3."
| Category | % of the total |
| Product/feature update | 48.98% |
| Trading, listing, exchange | 23.99% |
| Token launch / Tokenomics | 14.00% |
| Events, conferences, sponsorships | 6.01% |
| Data, research, reports | 3.01% |
| Capital / Venture Capital / Corporate Finance | 2.00% |
| Awards, community, internal communications | 2.00% |
Market impact and manipulation risk
This approach further amplifies the effect. Many platforms even commit to posting content on dozens of websites, including crypto news sites, and placing ads on major news portals. This makes it easy for projects to show off their "featured on popular news channels."
Small, inconspicuous notes and annotations can lead small investors to mistakenly believe that the advertising content is an article written by an independent journalist.
Such sensational and exaggerated content can stimulate the activity of retail investors , and even automated trading bots , causing short-term price fluctuations based on emotion rather than fundamental factors.
This is quite similar to the "pump-and- Dump" schemes that have occurred with cheap stocks in the past, where press releases were exploited to create artificial demand and then insiders secretly sold off their holdings.
Therefore, this study draws an important conclusion for investors: being published in many places does not mean it has been verified. Always be wary of press releases, especially from high-risk projects or those showing signs of fraud. XEM them as advertising first, market signals second, and always maintain a skeptical attitude when evaluating information.
