The Liverpool starting XI was announced. On a blockchain media platform. Let that sink in for a moment.
A few days ago, Crypto Briefing—a publication built on the back of decentralized technology coverage—published a piece about Liverpool's lineup against Newcastle. No token analysis. No protocol breakdown. No mention of smart contracts or gas fees. Just a football team sheet and some tactical musings. The internet barely noticed. But for those of us who've spent years building in this space, it was a signal worth decoding.
This isn't a story about football. It's a story about identity, focus, and the quiet desperation that creeps into media platforms when the bear market tightens its grip. It's about what happens when a publication loses sight of its core mission and starts chasing engagement wherever it can find it.
I've been in this industry since 2017. I've launched a DAO that collapsed under its own weight, watched my portfolio drop 70% in a single cycle, and spent countless nights studying zero-knowledge proofs while the market slept. I've learned that the difference between a thriving community and a dying one often comes down to a single question: do you know what you are? Crypto Briefing's football coverage suggests they're struggling to answer that question.
The Context: When Vertical Media Loses Its Verticals
Crypto Briefing launched in 2017 as a dedicated blockchain news outlet. For years, it carved out a niche covering DeFi protocols, NFT drops, and Layer-2 scaling solutions. Its audience was built on a promise: we'll help you navigate the chaos of decentralized finance. That promise had value because it was specific. It wasn't trying to be everything to everyone.
Then the market turned. Ad revenue dried up. Readership patterns shifted. And someone in a strategy meeting probably asked the most dangerous question in media: "How do we grow?" The answer they landed on, apparently, was sports coverage.
The logic is understandable. Football is the world's most popular sport. Liverpool has a massive global fanbase. Newcastle's Saudi-backed resurgence makes for compelling storylines. In theory, tapping into that audience could bring fresh eyes to the platform. Maybe some of those football fans would stick around for the crypto content. Maybe they'd subscribe. Maybe they'd click on ads.
But here's what that strategy misses: the crypto audience and the football audience are not the same people. There's overlap, sure. But the person reading a lineup announcement at 3 PM on a Saturday is not the same person researching rollup gas costs at 11 PM on a Tuesday. The intent is different. The engagement pattern is different. The trust relationship is different.
And here's the deeper problem: when a specialized publication starts publishing outside its lane, it sends a message to its core audience. It says, "We're not confident in our primary value proposition anymore." It says, "We'll publish anything that gets clicks." It says, "Vibes over algorithms" in the worst possible way.
I've seen this play out before. In 2021, during the NFT explosion, I launched a project called AfricanCode. We connected Cape Town's tech talent with global NFT artists. We sold 200 generative art pieces in 48 hours and raised $80,000. The momentum was incredible. But then the hype faded, and I didn't have a sustainable value proposition to keep the community engaged. The project stagnated. I learned that viral moments don't build lasting communities—consistent, focused value does.
The Core: Analyzing the Strategic Miscalculation
Let me break down what's actually happening here, because there's more to this than a simple editorial misstep.
The Engagement Trap
Sports content generates reliable engagement. Lineup announcements, transfer rumors, match predictions—these are low-effort, high-traffic pieces that perform consistently. For a media platform facing declining crypto readership, the temptation to pivot toward reliable traffic sources is overwhelming.
But here's the thing I've learned from my own failures: engagement without alignment is just noise. When I was chasing yield farming protocols in 2020, I was constantly engaged. I was earning 100%+ APY. I was part of every trending conversation. But I was also exhausted, scattered, and ultimately less effective than if I'd focused on one or two solid strategies. The same principle applies to media platforms. A thousand casual readers who don't care about your core topic are worth less than a hundred deeply engaged readers who do.
The Brand Dilution Risk
Crypto Briefing's brand equity is built on crypto expertise. When readers visit the site, they're making a mental bet: "This publication understands the technology and the market." That bet is fragile. It takes years to build and seconds to undermine.
Publishing football content doesn't immediately destroy that trust. But it erodes it incrementally. Every piece of off-topic content signals to the core audience that the platform is drifting. It signals to advertisers that the audience is unfocused. It signals to competitors that there's a gap in the crypto coverage they can fill.
I've seen this dynamic destroy communities. In the bear market of 2022, I watched several Web3 projects pivot to whatever seemed trendy—AI integrations, metaverse experiences, play-to-earn mechanics—without any coherent strategy. Each pivot attracted a few new users but alienated the core community. The result was a slow bleed of engagement and a loss of identity that proved fatal once the market recovered.
The Missed Opportunity
Here's what frustrates me most about this move: there's a genuinely compelling intersection between football and blockchain that Crypto Briefing could have explored. Fan tokens. NFT ticketing. On-chain player statistics. Decentralized fantasy leagues. These are real, substantive topics where crypto expertise adds genuine value to football discourse.
Instead of covering Liverpool's lineup as a generic sports story, Crypto Briefing could have analyzed how blockchain-based fan engagement might change the match-day experience. They could have examined how Newcastle's Saudi ownership might impact the club's tokenization strategy. They could have explored how on-chain data could transform player scouting.
That would have been differentiated content. That would have leveraged their expertise. That would have attracted new audiences while serving their core readers. Instead, they published a lineup announcement that any sports site could have written, with zero crypto angle, and called it a day.
The Contrarian View: Maybe They're Onto Something
Now let me play devil's advocate, because this isn't as simple as "stay in your lane."
The media landscape is brutal. Traditional crypto media is facing competition from Twitter threads, Substack newsletters, Discord communities, and podcast networks. The advertising model that sustained crypto journalism is broken. Maybe Crypto Briefing needs to diversify to survive. Maybe football coverage is just the beginning of a broader expansion strategy. Maybe they're positioning themselves to become a general-interest media platform that happens to have started with crypto.
That's a legitimate strategy. The Athletic started as a sports-focused publication and expanded into multiple markets. Vox Media began as a political blog and became a general-interest publisher. Media platforms evolve. The key is whether the evolution is strategic or reactive.
If Crypto Briefing has a clear vision for becoming a broader media platform, football coverage could be part of a deliberate expansion plan. They might be building toward a future where crypto is just one vertical among many. In that case, the lineup announcement is not a mistake—it's a calculated first step.
But here's my concern: nothing about this move suggests strategic thinking. The content is generic. The timing is random. There's no crypto angle, no unique perspective, no indication that they're building toward something bigger. It looks like desperation, not strategy. And desperation is rarely a good foundation for growth.
The Takeaway: Finding the Signal in the Noise
In the end, this story isn't really about football or media strategy. It's about the challenge every builder faces in a bear market: staying true to your vision when the incentives pull you in a thousand directions.
I've been there. When my portfolio crashed in 2022, I could have pivoted to whatever was trending. Instead, I dove deeper into zero-knowledge proofs—a technology I believed in, even when no one was paying attention. That decision led to my most-read work and eventually to TruthChain, a project that's made a real difference in how we authenticate AI-generated content.
The lesson is simple: code is law, but people are truth. Your audience trusts you because you offer something specific. When you dilute that specificity, you lose the trust. When you lose the trust, you lose everything.
Crypto Briefing will survive this. They'll publish more crypto content, and their core audience will mostly forget about the football experiment. But the signal is there for those who want to see it: even established platforms are struggling to find their footing in this market. The ones that thrive will be the ones that embrace the volatility, find their signal, and stay focused on what they do best.
The real question isn't whether Crypto Briefing should cover football. It's whether they remember why they started covering crypto in the first place. And that's a question every builder in this space should be asking themselves right now.
