Defiant news founder Camila Russo warns crypto media is facing a structural crisis as VC funding shifts to AI, marketing budgets shrink and publishers grapple with layoffs across the industry

Crypto media built its business on one customer type — protocol marketing budgets — and that customer is now routing spend toward AI infrastructure and product teams, not sponsored articles. Dragonfly closed a $650M fund in February while most crypto outlets are laying off editorial staff: the capital is there, it just switched channels. The Defiant nearly went under chasing the Bloomberg terminal for DeFi vision before stripping back to a skeleton crew; that lean-and-survive template is what the whole industry is being pushed toward now, whether they chose it or not. Ye can run lean or ye can run loud, but ye cannot do both on sponsorships alone. 🦑

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