Regardless of mainstream media protection of crypto turning into extra unfavorable in recent times, a report discovered that in 2025, legacy media’s protection of bitcoin turned extra balanced, with impartial reporting outweighing unfavorable tales.
Based on an mixture of sentiment information compiled by crypto intelligence platform Notion, the shift was much less about enthusiasm for bitcoin and extra concerning the exhaustion of earlier critiques.
Perception’s analysis, which tracked around 350,000 mentions across 407 outlets, suggests that environmental concerns, which as soon as dominated mainstream protection, light in 2025, changed by episodic reporting on crime, kidnappings, and illicit use.
Whereas these tales skew unfavorable in isolation, they not framed bitcoin itself as structurally dangerous, leading to a internet tone that was extra impartial than adversarial.
For the primary time, BTC’s largest media moments weren’t framed round whether or not bitcoin is useless, the information reveals. They had been about how everlasting bitcoin has turn out to be, and whether or not its infrastructure can scale and adapt to that permanence.
Nonetheless, this variation in narrative did not happen in a single day; quite, it unfolded in distinct phases all year long, in line with Notion’s information.
January marked a regulatory regime change, because the departure of SEC Chair Gary Gensler closed out years of enforcement-led uncertainty. This led to many enforcement instances being dismissed by the company, similar to those against Binance and Coinbase.
In March, coverage legitimization adopted with the issuance of an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Whereas the trade continues to be awaiting an official final result of the chief order, this has shifted the media protection from speculative debate to state-level finances implications.
Then got here October, which delivered value validation as bitcoin set a brand new excessive earlier than correcting, reinforcing its standing as a mature, unstable asset quite than a fragile experiment.
By yr’s finish, consideration had shifted to technical questions surrounding long-term cryptographic foundations, notably after advances in quantum computing reignited discussions about future-proofing the Bitcoin blockchain.
So, the place is media consideration heading subsequent after protection settled right into a extra impartial, normalized posture in 2025?
Unsurprisingly, its synthetic intelligence (AI) emerged because the dominant consideration driver throughout mainstream and digital channels, in line with Notion’s information.
AI, as a subject, generated considerably increased dialogue quantity and sharper sentiment swings, with controversy outpacing bitcoin whilst mining-related protection, which was beforehand getting principally unfavorable protection, skewed to extra optimistic, Notion stated.
It appears that evidently, within the eyes of the mainstream media, bitcoin appears to be like much less like immediately’s disruptive menace and extra like yesterday’s, as AI inherits the volatility of consideration that when outlined crypto protection.
With crypto costs largely rangebound, solely time will inform what catalyst will shift protection again into crypto. Nonetheless, for now, it appears AI will dominate the 2026 media narrative, whether or not optimistic or unfavorable.
Market Motion
BTC: Bitcoin is holding above $92,000 as ETF inflows re-emerge and liquidations keep contained, pointing to institutional assist beneath the market quite than a momentum-driven breakout.
ETH: Ethereum is edging increased close to $3,160, with modest features and contained liquidations pointing to regular accumulation quite than a speculative push.
Gold: Gold is buying and selling at $4,392.93, holding its broader uptrend as Venezuela-driven geopolitical threat and upcoming U.S. jobs information preserve safe-haven demand and Fed rate-cut expectations in focus regardless of a current margin-triggered selloff.
Nikkei 225: Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.26% in its first buying and selling session of 2026, main features throughout Asia-Pacific markets after the U.S. stated it had captured Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whereas oil costs edged decrease amid geopolitical uncertainty.
