Chainstory: AI drives nearly half of major crypto news coverage

Nearly half of the crypto news stories across major publications disclose some use of AI tools, according to a report from PR firm Chainstory.

Artificial intelligence tools are having a major impact on information, including on journalism. A new report by Chainstory, which examined 80,000 articles from five major crypto news sites, reveals a significant rise in AI use in 2025.

During that period, 48% of articles on Investing.com, The Defiant, Benzinga, CoinDesk, and Bitcoin News included disclosures about AI use. Investing.com and The Defiant had the highest share of AI-generated or AI-assisted content.

Notably, these publications were selected because of their explicit disclosure policies on AI use. Chainstory acknowledged that the real numbers, both among these five news sites and across the broader crypto news industry, may be higher or lower.

Audiences can tell when something’s AI-generated

Chainstory reached out to several editors about their policies on AI. One of them was our very own crypto.news editor Jayson Derrick. He told Chainstory there is a place for AI in the newsroom, but that writing entire articles with AI misses the point of the technology.

“AI can be a fantastic research assistant and an awful storyteller. It’s incredibly helpful for accelerating background tasks like summarizing long research reports, extracting key points from filings, or finding stats to justify a claim. But when it comes to producing actual content, the end result is poor.”

Derrick explained that, for now, AI can’t replicate a genuine human voice. Instead, articles written by AI often sound robotic, which can make them feel disingenuous to readers. He said:

“I believe audiences can tell when something wasn’t written by a real person, whether it’s labeled or not.”

Commenting on the report, Afik Rechler, Co-CEO of Chainstory, stated:

“AI is an integral part of crypto journalism in one way or another, everyone uses it nowadays. But it hasn’t replaced human reporting. It can’t. Not at this stage. LLMs can’t handle stories that require depth, deeper context, nuances, etc. Using AI is not necessarily a bad thing. But there needs to be some sort of balance to preserve trust.”