Crypto Media Traffic Drops 16% in Western Europe Amid Regulatory Shifts

In the first quarter of 2025, a significant shift occurred in the crypto media landscape across Western Europe. According to a report by Outset PR, 82% of crypto media outlets experienced a decline in traffic. This trend was driven by a combination of regulatory pressures, algorithm updates, and changing search behaviors tied to market volatility. The report analyzed 133 Western European outlets, with 87 of them being crypto-focused, using SimilarWeb and Ahrefs to measure traffic and search visibility.

The implementation of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework played a pivotal role in reshaping media visibility. MiCA forced outlets to rethink compliance, language, and tone, even before full enforcement. The traffic across crypto-native media dropped from 26.57 million to 22.22 million visits, a decline of more than 16%. This decline varied significantly by region, with Italy and Spain being the hardest hit, both seeing over 70% of tracked crypto outlets lose visibility.

In Italy, the decline was particularly striking given the country's high level of crypto interest, with 37% of the population actively engaged. The downturn was largely driven by regulatory scrutiny from CONSOB, which targeted influencer-led content and investment-style messaging. Top Italian outlets lost nearly half their traffic, with only Borsainside maintaining consistent growth, ending the quarter up 15.96%. In Spain, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) enforced strict advertising guidelines, leading to a significant reduction in ad-supported content and discoverability. Although Bit2Me News surged 149.4% in March, most other Spanish-language outlets ended the quarter with traffic in decline.

Germany, the largest crypto language market in Europe, also faced significant visibility challenges. The financial regulator BaFin issued new guidance warning against investment-like promotion from unlicensed parties, including media platforms. Outlets like Coin-Update, Krypto Magazin, and BitcoinBlog.de saw sharp traffic declines. However, CoinJournal DE, backed by Investoo Group, grew 23.90% in Q1, benefiting from shared SEO expertise, multilingual publishing capabilities, and regulatory infrastructure.

In France, regulatory enforcement from the AMF focused on transparency, prompting algorithmic suppression of outlets that failed to properly label promotions or disclose financial risks. By February, 72% of French-language crypto platforms had lost traffic. Some sites like The Blog saw their visibility collapse almost entirely, while others, such as Blockchain France and InvestX, rebounded by March due to cleaner disclaimer practices and improved metadata.

Dutch-language media faced algorithmic whiplash, with 76% of outlets reporting traffic losses in February. High-profile names like Bitcoin Magazine NL and Bitcoinspot.nl saw significant declines, while a few properties like Beste Bank and Coinmarketcap.nl bounced back in March. However, most Dutch-language outlets were unable to regain their January positions, demonstrating the risk of traffic models built around search visibility.

In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expanded its financial promotions regime to include crypto, contributing to widespread visibility losses for UK-facing outlets. Most UK crypto-native platforms saw traffic decline across the quarter, with only The Market Periodical and MyCryptoSpaceUK posting quarterly gains. No UK-based outlet crossed the 500K monthly visit threshold, suggesting that while regulation played a role, overall readership remained modest compared to other regions.

Outset PR’s analysis revealed that traffic is concentrated among a small group of top-tier publishers. Just seven outlets surpassed 1 million monthly visits, accounting for 60.26% of the region’s total crypto-native traffic. A mid-tier of six outlets generated between 500K and 900K monthly visits, accounting for another 18% of total visibility. Beyond these two groups, 58 outlets attracted fewer than 100K monthly visits each, combining for only 6.24% of the total audience. While 16 outlets did post traffic increases during Q1, most of them grew by percentage, not by reach. Only Newsbit.de combined high growth with consistently strong reach above the 1 million mark.

In contrast to crypto-specific sites, generalist finance, tech, and economic publications proved far more resilient. Outset PR tracked 46 such platforms in Western Europe, and 25 of them posted quarterly growth. Together, they generated over 106 million visits, dwarfing the 22 million visits recorded by crypto-only sites. These outlets benefited from strong domain authority, broader editorial scopes, and less reliance on price-based speculation content. Outset PR notes that finance-first platforms have become vital for crypto PR efforts, especially in a MiCA-enforced environment where credibility and compliance now define reach.

Google Discover also played a significant role in the battle for traffic. Only 22.99% of crypto-native outlets maintained a consistent presence in Google Discover in Q1 2025. By comparison, 32.61% of non-crypto-native outlets appeared consistently in Discover. Nine of these sites surpassed 1 million monthly visits, confirming the importance of technical compliance and editorial credibility in Google's evolving news ecosystem.

Outset PR’s report makes one thing clear: the traffic drop experienced by crypto-covering media outlets in Western Europe during Q1 2025 was a structural reset. Regulation, platform policies, and evolving search engine standards have raised the bar for visibility, and many crypto publishers found themselves unprepared for the new terrain. In this cycle, survival hinges on multilingual reach, legal clarity, and editorial agility. SEO depth, risk disclaimers, and compliance-ready publishing aren’t just best practices — they’re the price of admission. As the with a boutique approach to crypto communications, Outset PR emphasizes the importance of tailoring media planning to business goals, market dynamics, and regional nuances.