MiCA regulations caused 82% of crypto media sites in Europe to lose traffic in Q1 2025

Crypto news sites across Europe lost visibility fast in the first three months of 2025 after MiCA rules kicked in. According to a detailed report from Outset, over 80% of crypto-native media in the region saw traffic fall.

While MiCA mainly targets crypto service providers, not publishers, the rules swept up media outlets anyway, especially those running sponsored posts, affiliate links, or anything remotely promotional without the right disclaimers.

In January, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warned that even editorial content must be stripped of investment talk unless licenses are in place. Google responded quickly. Pages without proper disclaimers or jurisdiction tags got buried.

Sites outside the EU weren’t safe either if their content targeted Europe in German, French, Dutch, or Spanish. The traffic drops weren’t just algorithmic. Geopolitical tensions and the broader crypto market downturn made the hits worse.

Germany issued threats, and traffic collapsed anyway

Germany had 34 crypto-native media outlets. By February, 21 of them were down. BaFin, the country’s regulator, issued public warnings about unlicensed “investment-like” promotion. Coin-Update lost over 51%. Krypto Magazin fell 45%. Cointelegraph Germany plunged 63%. March didn’t fix much—half the German outlets were still dropping.

A few sites fought back with disclaimers and legal fine print. BitcoinBlog.de bounced up 47.4% in March. Krypto News and Kryptozeitung also posted small rebounds. Others stayed down for the count. The few winners—CryptoMonday, Blockzeit, CoinJournal DE, and Crypto Valley Journal—used stronger legal tagging and multilingual coverage. In total, just 9 German-language sites recorded any growth that quarter.

CoinJournal DE benefited from its ownership by Investoo Group, a UK firm that owns a bunch of multilingual crypto sites optimized for SEO and local compliance. In 2020, Investoo added CoinJournal to its portfolio and later merged bitcoinmag.de into it. The combined traffic and shared legal infrastructure helped them hold steady during the crackdown.

Other former Investoo brands like Kryptoszene.de, now independent, still saw growth. It probably pivoted to niche German-first content after the split. Blockchain Stories DE and Block-Builders.de also grew across the quarter.

French outlets fell hard while only a few climbed back up

France had 25 crypto-dedicated media outlets at the start of Q1. Most dropped. The Blog lost nearly 72%. Coinhouse, CryptoNews France, and Conseils Crypto each lost around 40%. Cointelegraph France underperformed even though it’s tied to Frekaz Group, which also owns Cointribune.

Cointribune held up better, mostly due to its structure as a hybrid VC-media startup under Frekaz. But it wasn’t immune to search penalties. Franchise models, like Cointelegraph’s French edition, struggled more—limited backend access and lower investment in SEO made a difference.

By March, things improved a bit. Stelareum climbed back up 9%. Blockchain France grew 72.64%. InvestX jumped 60.71%. Cryptoast and Bitcoin.fr also showed mild gains. In total, only four French outlets finished the quarter with stable growth: ActuCrypto.info, Blockchain France, The Market Periodical, and InvestX. All of them leaned on compliance tools, clear risk language, and wider language support.

The Netherlands and Belgium didn’t pass new crypto media laws, but that didn’t protect anyone from Google. Dutch-speaking outlets took heavy hits in February. Out of 21 sites, over 76% lost traffic. Bitcoinexchangenederland.nl got wrecked—down 92.96%. Bitcoin Koers dropped more than 50%. Crypto Insiders fell even without regulatory pressure.

The same pattern held in Spain and Italy. Spanish outlets were hit by the late 2024 ad rules from CNMV. By February, 70% had traffic losses. CriptoPasion dropped nearly 47%. Cointelegraph ES and BeInCrypto’s Spanish edition both lost around 20%. Bit2Me News was the outlier, up 149.40% after a spike in March. The rest stayed down.

Italy also saw 70% of crypto media lose ground. The Cryptonomist dropped 42%. Cointelegraph Italy fell 46%. Only Borsainside grew. CONSOB’s early 2025 advisories didn’t help, especially for influencer-linked platforms.

The UK wasn’t even part of MiCA, but got slammed anyway. The FCA started enforcing its own crypto ad rules in January. Five UK-facing crypto outlets were tracked. The Market Periodical and MyCryptoSpaceUK posted gains, but they were small—MyCryptoSpaceUK stayed under 10K monthly visits. Bitcourier and Cryptouk.io failed to recover. The Crypto Adviser surged in March, up 162.18%, but still couldn’t hit 4K visits.

Q1 ended with 81.61% of crypto-native publishers in Europe down. January started with 26.57M visits across all outlets. By March, it was 22.22M. That’s a 16.37% drop in just two months. Only 16 outlets gained any traction, and just half of those had steady growth month to month.

Traffic across Europe was mostly concentrated in a handful of sites. BTC Echo, Crypto Insiders, Cointribune, Bitcoin Magazine, Cointelegraph ES, and Newsbit’s Dutch and German versions had over 1M monthly visits. They made up 60% of all crypto media traffic.

Lower-tier sites—those under 100K visits—added up to just 6.24% of the region’s traffic. Mid-level outlets filled in the rest. Germany and France led the region in audience. Italy and the UK underperformed. Belgium split between Dutch and English sites. Portugal had zero crypto-native publications.

Meanwhile, mainstream financial sites outperformed crypto media. Of 46 broader media outlets, 25 gained traffic. Sites like Investing.com and Finanzen.net got over 100M visits combined. In Germany, 24% of top-performing generalist outlets were based locally. Italy’s big players—like FinanzaOnline—brought in millions. Spain’s finance media also held up.

Only 32% of those mainstream finance outlets were consistently in Google Discover. Sites like boursier.com, finanzen.at, and es.investing.com were regulars. Nine of those broke 1M visits.

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