​Media finds out about the possible sale of the CoinDesk news site

CoinDesk’s reporting was early on the FTX story, burnishing its credentials as a serious chronicler of the industry. And its Consensus conference is one of crypto’s hottest events, with 17,000 attending last year’s Austin bash.

But with once-stable crypto companies falling one after another, the publication and its competitors are at the mercy of an unforgiving environment. Unlike most trade publications, CoinDesk and its peers offer their content for free, funding their businesses with revenue from advertisers and events. The pool of both is shrinking fast. The Cyber Monday offer for the Consensus conference — a buy-one-get-two-free deal — may not be enough to entice people who have lost 90% of their net worth to pay thousands of dollars to network.

The core criticism of the once-high-flying space is that it created value out of nothing — and it would all come crashing down like a house of cards when macroeconomic winds changed or regulation was introduced. Crypto-centric publications, despite the great job many have done in covering the collapse, may be part of the collateral damage.

CoinDesk does not need to be sold for any reason related to its business.

The troubles at Genesis may force Silbert to choose between his children, and he could decide to let Genesis go bankrupt so CoinDesk (and Grayscale) can continue to churn ahead.

Typically, lenders are more profitable than media outlets, but crypto is not your typical industry. CoinDesk may be able to survive a cold stretch after its recent month.

The FTX reporting from the outlet — which was linked to in publications like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal — has brought new eyes to the site and its reporters, opening it to new audiences.

Anthony Scaramucci’s crypto conference last April, co-hosted by FTX in the Bahamas, attracted big names and serious headlines, but Consensus could easily supplant it as the must-attend event next year.

There’s an opening to be the industry flagbearer, and DCG has the components — especially with CoinDesk — to fill the role.

The troubles in traditional media have attracted certain actors in traditional finance. Restructuring experts, opportunistic managers, distress specialists — they make their names by finding the gems amid the carnage of a flailing industry. Alden Global Capital, the most well-known of these media buyers, took a profitable newsroom at the Chicago Tribune last summer and proceeded to gut it via buyouts and burnout.

Crypto media might be their next target. CoinDesk is attracting interest from rivals, but also from the kind of ruthless investor types that reporters at print newspapers are all too familiar with. These newspapers — which have grappled with job cuts and office sales since hedge funds turned their attention to the industry — know what it is like to be looked at as just a number.