Not long after cryptocurrency behemoth FTX was taken down by a Coindesk exposé, the emerging news site DL News has placed a bet that fraudsters and charlatans are still out there.
The official launch is scheduled for next month, according to the Press Gazette, and editor Trista Kelley believes there is room in the market for coverage of cryptocurrency that is serious about the rapidly evolving industry, but also takes a critical stance.
The site is owned by Defi Llama?, a “collective” dashboard that tracks all the cryptocurrencies in which they are locked.
Kelley said: “Outside of cryptocurrency, a lot of people haven’t heard of it, but within the crypto space, it’s generally seen as the Rolls Royce of data aggregation.” The outlet claims to generate more than 4 million page views per month.
The founding fathers of Defi Llama remain anonymous, but they maintain an online presence through the pseudonyms 0xngmi and 0xLlam4. Kelley described them as “sort of private guys”.
“I think they want the products to speak for themselves.”
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The market intelligence group’s decision to launch a news outlet is similar to the move to consumer content made by Kelley’s former employer, Bloomberg. But, according to the parent company, DL News identified a gap in coverage that it could fill.
“I think there is a Venn Diagram of crypto natives who will share any news, any speculation, and a lot more pump and dump. On the other hand, the financial industry treats this industry differently [crypto] with a bit of humor and sarcasm to illustrate the depth of the content. So we hope to fill this void.”
The outlet plans to be operational by early next year, with 10 to 12 journalists from across the country. Europe. Kelley said the DL News was a reference to the following: “Let’s show our work, don’t do bombs and dumps, just tell the truth.”
The company intends to set up a paywall to make some content available for free, but still aiming to attract the best paying readers in both the crypto community and traditional finance: hedge funds and asset managers, brokerage firms, HF traders, banks, etc., who are very interested in this space if they are sitting on their hands right now.
But the crypto market is sluggish at the moment: Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is currently trading at just above $20,000, down from $64,000 in November 2021. Was Kelley mad that she didn’t hear the story?
“Abso-fucking-lutely. I wish I could have lasted six more months before this collapse. But I think you are essentially saying that we are missing out on a lot of interesting stories because they can’t be published yet. But after all this, do you think it’s the first domino to drop? There are many strings that we can pull. I’m taking an optimistic view.”
The day before our interview, it was reported that cryptocurrency broker Genesis was about to file for bankruptcy. It did eventually, two days later. Genesis’s parent company, Digital Currency Group, also owns leading crypto news website Coindesk, and was forced to foot the bill for the resulting debt. Genesis’s share price began to decline.
DL News is also owned and controlled by a player within the crypto space. Was Kelley concerned about possible conflicts of interest?
“We don’t have this advantage [venture capital] money. Our owners do not trade with AUM (assets under Management
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