AI Tools and Mainstream Media Undermine Latin America's Crypto-Native Outlets

Latin America's crypto media landscape has entered a sharp decline, with traffic to crypto-native outlets collapsing 54% in Q2 2025 despite a 18.3% rise in regional crypto adoption, according to a new Outset PR report. The analysis, powered by SimilarWeb data, highlights a growing schism between specialized crypto media and mainstream outlets, which saw their crypto-related traffic rise by 8% during the same period. The findings underscore a structural shift in how audiences consume crypto content, driven by AI tools and a migration toward general-interest platforms, the Outset PR report finds.

Crypto-native publishers, defined as outlets focused exclusively on blockchain, crypto, and Web3, faced a dramatic drop in engagement. Total visits to these sites fell from 17.85 million in Q1 to 8.19 million in Q2, with intra-quarter traffic plummeting 34.6% between April and June. Only 27.8% of crypto-native outlets reported growth, while 72.2% continued to shrink. The top-performing tier contracted significantly, with standout performers dropping from six in Q1 to just one by Q2, the report notes.

Mainstream media, by contrast, capitalized on the region's crypto surge. General-interest outlets featuring crypto coverage attracted 263.2 million visits in Q2, up from 243.8 million in Q1. Argentina and Brazil emerged as key markets, with Argentina accounting for 56% of mainstream crypto traffic and Brazil representing 62% of crypto-native readership. While overall crypto-related traffic across LATAM increased slightly to 271.4 million visits, the shift toward mainstream sources reflects a broader audience preference for diversified content, the Outset PR report observes.

A few crypto-native outlets managed to buck the trend. Criptoinforme and Bitnoticias reported double-digit growth, surging 79.8% and 133%, respectively. However, the report notes that increased visits did not consistently translate into deeper engagement. Traffic sources also revealed a significant shift: AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity became dominant discovery tools, with mainstream media capturing 3.7 million AI-related visits compared to just 79,000 for crypto-native sites, according to the report.

The report's authors attribute the decline to a combination of factors, including the rise of AI in content discovery, the resilience of mainstream media, and the structural disadvantages faced by niche publishers. Outset PR's findings provide a critical roadmap for stakeholders, offering insights into media trends, audience behavior, and the regulatory implications of Brazil and Argentina's diverging crypto policies. The full report, including charts and country-specific breakdowns, is available on Outset PR's blog.