Dear BlockWorks community,
Since our launch in December 2017, our mission has been to build the world's best source of cryptocurrency insights and information for investors and professionals. We're here because we believe cryptocurrencies improve the world by expanding access to assets, increasing transparency, and reducing financial friction.
This market moves in extreme cycles, but if you zoom out, you will see that more and more value moves each year on the chain.
This trend will continue for decades, and as it continues, the number of investors, founders, developers, and professionals working in the cryptocurrency space will grow exponentially. All of these participants will need access to information to make investments, build companies, and scale protocols. This dynamic will continue to fuel a huge market for high-quality crypto data, research, and insights.
Since day one, we've built Blockworks to provide this information. As the industry grew, so did we.
Our work is simple
Our media channels provide professionals and investors with the essential news and insights they need to make informed decisions. our Events Create connections that move the industry forward - bringing together CEOs, founders, investors and developers to shape the future of cryptocurrencies. our Data and research Provides professional investors with the tools and alpha they need to make smarter investment decisions. And our new formation Consulting business Protocols helps build a better and stronger business.
We make money through advertising, sponsorships, event tickets, consulting services, and access to our research and data platform.
Although it may seem simple in theory, implementation is everything, and implementation in both media and software is difficult. Social media and artificial intelligence are reshaping how people consume news, putting pressure on those who cannot adapt. In the past few years, many of our competitors have declined or been forced to sell due to these pressures. Meanwhile, if you're building software products without a strong distribution path, this means you often have to spend more than you make to acquire customers. In turn, you become dependent on venture capital dollars. We refer to this internally as the “VC hamster wheel.” We avoid these risks by owning the distribution layer and remaining profitable.
Default alive
The folks at Blockworks are tired of this story, but I'll tell it again.
Three months after founding Blockworks, Mike and I met with a successful entrepreneur in his New York office. We wanted his advice. How can we compete with established companies (CoinDesk, Cointelegraph), startups (The Block, Decrypt), and institutions (Bloomberg, WSJ)? At the time, this seemed impossible.
He gave us one piece of advice that resonated: In an industry as volatile and cutthroat as cryptocurrency, sometimes all you have to do is survive.
This became, and continues to be, the core principle of Blockworks.
We operate Blockworks differently than many of our competitors. Instead of chasing whatever growth was left, we deliberately made decisions that sacrificed overall growth in order to survive a default.
The culmination of many of these decisions has put Blockworks in our best position yet as we head into 2024. But we still have to execute.
Thanks to the best team we've ever had, 2024 has been our most successful year to date:
- Advertising and sponsorship: We achieved all-time highs in advertising and sponsorships on a yearly and quarterly basis; The fourth quarter of 2024 was our best quarter ever.
- R: Our average rate of return has also reached an all-time high, and we now have over 100 institutions, funds and financial institutions using Concrete block works research platform.
- House of brands: We believe that the future of media lies in niche brands, each serving a unique audience. We now have five strong brands under our umbrella – each with their own podcast, newsletter, Telegram community, and coming soon, personal activation.
- Podcast: We've published 672 podcast episodes, which have been listened to more than 15 million times across YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and other streaming platforms. our Podcast Network It's the biggest in the industry, and I now think it's one of the top three financial podcast networks in the world.
- Newsletters: The lower the value of a page view, the greater the value of a newsletter subscriber. our Newsletters It has grown to nearly 200,000 subscribers.
- Preparing reports: published by our newsroom 2230 stories Which reached readers in all 195 countries, cementing Blockworks as a go-to source for cryptocurrency news. After acquiring two other crypto media publications, we are proud to remain independent.
- research: Our research team has published 159 research reports and is now regarded as the leading analyst team in the cryptocurrency space.
- Data: “Improve data, improve industry.” We've made massive improvements to our data ecosystem, and now cover user metrics, financials, and token data for over 30 industry-leading protocols and applications.
- Consultancy: We launched Blockworks Advisory to help protocols avoid common pitfalls and accelerate their path to success
- Acquisitions: Based on our House of Brands strategy, we acquired and combined both The drop and Collapse In the Blockworks family, enhancing our editorial capabilities and insights.
Our competitive advantage
Our data platform is supported by our media channels; Our reports are backed by our own data and research.
This media data flywheel is the synergy that keeps us ahead of our competitors.
No other media outlet has our depth of data and financial data, and no other research or data platform has our distribution capabilities.
Looking to 2025
In 2025, you will see us:
- Be the actual data and research platform for cryptocurrencies
- Double down on our House of Brands strategy, expanding each property and adding new properties. This means increasing podcasts, newsletters, and communities, as well as adding personal components to each brand
- Transform Blockworks into a talent destination for podcasters, writers, reporters, and researchers. This means finding talent early, building brands around them, and designing incentives to retain them. It also means investing in journalism at a time when others are withdrawing their investments
- Hosting three of the best conferences in the industry: DAS New York and DAS London for Enterprise; Not allowed for developers and builders
- Integrate our media and events more tightly with our research and data
- Help scale protocols through our consulting work
The little moments: day by day
When we look back over the past seven years, building Blockworks has been less about big moments in time, and more about product launches, big hires, and exciting fundraising. It has been more about putting one foot in front of the other, day after day after day, while making sound decisions that improve sustainable, targeted growth over the long term.
This is how we survived the coronavirus and made it through the 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 bear markets. It's also how we were prepared to thrive in this new bull market. This is how we will continue to build the best brand and platform for information and crypto media in the world.
Thank you
We couldn't do this without our customers, employees, readers and listeners. Your support advances our mission every day. As we move into 2025 and beyond, we are more excited than ever about the future of cryptocurrencies and our role in it.
Jason and Mike
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