Crypto investment firms have a responsibility to build a robust content strategy and play a role in telling the most important stories in crypto.

Cryptocurrency has long been criticized for its image problem — and I’m not just talking about the collapse of FTX.

Since Bitcoin’s Genesis Block was mined 15 years ago, mainstream media has continuously approached — dare I say ‘targeted’ — crypto with skepticism. In bull cycles, it’s portrayed as weird internet money that attracts strange, greedy people from across the world. In bearish times, it’s called a scam by the unscathed who mock anyone who invested in the first place.

If you’re reading this, you probably know this narrative isn’t all true. You’ve continuously seen an influx of developers enter the space during downturns, you’ve watched many networks emerge and evolve over the past several years, and you’ve witnessed new use cases for blockchain technologies become realized. Still, it’s likely you’ve also had a conversation where you’re forced to defend your conviction in the industry. There’s a large divide between web2 and web3 communities, as well as the content they consume about crypto.

I distinctly remember the first time I noticed this gap. One morning in August 2020, instead of going for an aimless ‘quarantine walk’ or scrolling TikTok until lunch, I decided that I was going to learn everything I could about crypto.

My first introduction to bitcoin occurred seven years prior when I overheard my dad and his friend speak about the nascent digital currency. Unfortunately, my middle school self wasn’t interested in doing even more homework on a complex subject matter. But throughout the years, I read a few articles about crypto, heard high school teachers casually bring up blockchain technology, and even saw a bitcoin ATM pop up at the bakery across from my high school. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I was finally ready to take crypto seriously — so I sat down at my laptop, opened up a Google doc, and began to research Ethereum, DeFi, liquid staking, DAOs, mining, and more.

In my quest for beginner-friendly content, I struggled to find sources that accurately represented the broader impacts of decentralized technology. At the time, I was halfway through my degrees in Economics and Science and Technology Studies (STS) — an interdisciplinary field that focuses on anthropology and sociology of STEM. I thought deeply about blockchain’s long-term impacts on financial institutions, governance, identity verification and more, rather than just the short-term speculative nature of trading crypto. The narratives I came across made it difficult to comprehend the space holistically, as well as find a community of people to share this interest with.

Instead of shying away, I saw an opportunity. What if I could begin to take steps in creating content to help not only market these technologies, but the industry as a whole? I decided to sign up for my university’s blockchain club, and shortly after joining, I took on the role of Marketing Director.

That next summer, I began a social media internship at CoinDesk, building and executing the newsroom’s TikTok strategy. Turning articles into 30-second video scripts, paired with the Gen Z audience on the app challenged me to explain crypto in the simplest terms possible. Doing so helped me sharpen my own understanding of the industry, and further fueled my passion for creating content that those new to the space could understand.

There are many areas in crypto that make me excited to pursue a career in the industry. However, if there’s one that I gravitate toward most, it’s digital ownership and provenance. Using the blockchain as a tool to trace proprietorship — whether it be over a digital or physical item — provides a tremendous amount of utility. In conversations with friends and family members outside of crypto, I use the classic example of how a business like The Real Real could benefit from using the blockchain to verify the authenticity of the designer garments it resells. However, the moment some of them found out this was associated with crypto, they appeared thrown off, and stopped asking questions.

I knew that blockchain utility needed better storytelling, so I helped build CoinDesk’s web3 beat as its lead NFT reporter. Writing about the daily active users in the metaverse, breaking news on Trump’s NFTs collection, and reporting on large-scale blockchain-based digital art installations made me even more fascinated by the benefits of not only digital currency, but digital ownership.

While my passion for crypto became stronger everyday, the industry around me was crumbling. In less than a year, FTX collapsed, sending markets spiraling. ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’ and the shuttering of three crypto-friendly banks made industry leaders distrust regulators, and to top it off, NFTs were pronounced “worthless.” It did not help that the mainstream media was mostly communicating the negatives of the industry. Of course, numbers don’t tell the full story.

I knew that going forward, I wanted to help strengthen crypto’s narrative. However, doing so as a journalist only allows you a certain degree of knowledge about an ecosystem. Working at an investment firm with over 100 portfolio companies allows you to have much more insight into how crypto companies get built, how decisions get made, and how teams navigate scaling throughout the different cycles. It’s important for investment firms to establish a content strategy. Sharing their investment theses, research, and depth in knowledge about the space is critical for developers, other investors, and even consumers to understand how intelligent, experienced leaders in the industry think about decentralized technologies.

While I am enthusiastic about starting a content role at a crypto investment firm, I’m particularly excited to help expand the marketing team at CoinFund. With our robust social media strategy, editorial pipeline, and unique content approach surrounding our portfolio companies, I can’t wait to help tell more stories across the many different facets of the industry. With the launch of our new podcast Mined with CoinFund, we’ll be able to bring even more untold stories of crypto in front of our audience. We’ll also be showing up at crypto events in exciting ways — stay tuned for details.

More broadly, CoinFund’s mission to ‘champion the leaders of the new internet’ makes it clear that the team cares about how these new technologies can empower users, instead of just fuel speculation. Its wide range of portfolio companies are a testament to their conviction in web3’s multitude of use cases. CoinFund’s thesis on web3 and AI is what inspired me most to pursue this role. The intersection of the two will provide so many exciting opportunities for these nascent technologies to depend on each other and grow together.

Of course, behind every strong portfolio is a strong investment team. I can’t wait to learn from them and find unique ways to tell the story of one of the longest tenured crypto investment firms.

If you would like to reach out and chat content, please feel free to do so!

Email: cam@coinfund.io

Twitter: @camgthompson

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Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the individual CoinFund Management LLC (“CoinFund”) personnel quoted and are not the views of CoinFund or its affiliates. Certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources, which may include portfolio companies of funds managed by CoinFund. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, CoinFund has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.

 

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