What’s It Take To Be a Crypto Journalist? with Coindesk's Eli Tan and Casey Craig | Layer Zero
Bankless
Bankless
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2022
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Layer Zero, David is joined by Eli Tan, NFT reporter, and Casey Craig, Global Head of Comms of Coindesk for an in-person Bankless Studio interview.
Crypto is evolving at mind-boggling rates and traditional media is having a tough time keeping up. Enter Coindesk. Reporters such as Eli and the rest of the Coindesk team are as much on the frontier as those building in crypto.
Hear how Eli and Casey fell down the crypto rabbit hole, how they got their roles at Coindesk, what challenges they face as a crypto journalism organization, and how media is keeping up with crypto.
------
📣 Galxe | Explore Crypto’s #1 Credential Network
https://bankless.cc/Galxe
------
🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/
🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM
https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum
❎ ACROSS | BRIDGE TO LAYER 2
https://bankless.cc/Across
🦁 BRAVE | THE BROWSER NATIVE WALLET
https://bankless.cc/Brave
💠 NEXO | CRYPTO FINANCIAL HUB
https://bankless.cc/Nexo
🔐 LEDGER | NANO HARDWARE WALLETS
https://bankless.cc/Ledger
⚡️FUEL | THE MODULAR EXECUTION LAYER
https://bankless.cc/Fuelpod
-----
Topics Covered
0:00 Intro
5:26 Eli’s Background
7:57 Casey’s Role at Coindesk
9:13 How Eli Got Into Crypto
14:42 Challenges of Being a Crypto Journalist
16:55 Deciding What to Cover
17:51 The Crypto Journalism Balance
19:42 Coindesk’s Niche
20:33 Coindesk’s Journey
22:35 Hiring
23:44 Coindesk’s Disclosures
27:46 Due Diligence Process
30:32 Eli’s Proudest Scoop
30:50 Constitution DAO Story
33:00 Younger vs. Older Journalists
38:44 New Media Journalists
40:52 Where to Get Alpha
43:30 Do Kwon’s Coindesk Story
46:13 Anon Leads
47:22 Generational Connections
50:20 Average Future of Crypto Journalists
52:22 Going to Journalism School
53:16 The Future of Crypto Journalism
55:28 Coindesk’s Future
57:22 Poaching From TradMedia
59:33 Hierarchy & Flat Organizations
1:05:26 Closing
------
Resources:
Eli Tan
https://twitter.com/elitanjourno
Casey Craig
https://twitter.com/caseycraig_
-----
Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Layer 0. Layer 0 is a podcast of unscripted conversations with the people that |
| 0:12.1 | make up the Ethereum community. Crypto is built by code, but it's composed by people. |
| 0:16.7 | And each individual member of the crypto community has their own story to tell. |
| 0:21.0 | The CypherPunks understood that the code they write impacts the people they use it. |
| 0:24.4 | And Layer 0 focuses on the people behind the code because Ethereum is people all the way |
| 0:27.9 | down. And it always has been. |
| 0:30.0 | Today on Layer 0, I'm speaking with Casey Craig, Global Head of Combs at CoinDesk, and |
| 0:34.7 | also Eli Tan, a journalist and NFT journalist also at CoinDesk. And this is the episode |
| 0:40.2 | that I really wanted to produce to talk about crypto journalism. I haven't really seen |
| 0:44.8 | anyone go down the rabbit hole of what's it like to be a journalist in crypto, or what's |
| 0:50.2 | it like to be the head of coms of a crypto media crypto journalist publication. |
| 0:55.3 | But Bankless, we don't consider ourselves journalists. We kill ourselves a thesis driven |
| 0:59.5 | media company. We have opinions. There's a future out there that we want to help shape. |
| 1:04.2 | And journalism is not that. Journalism is here's the facts, here's the news, here's |
| 1:07.7 | what you need to know. And it's also about getting the scoop. It's also about getting |
| 1:11.7 | the alpha. And so Eli is this very young, 24 years old, started at CoinDesk at 22, fresh |
| 1:17.4 | out of college, skipped over, going over any sort of like trad media, trad job, and straight |
| 1:22.3 | into NFT journalism in the height of an NFT bull market. So we get that story. And |
| 1:27.9 | Casey, the head of coms at CoinDesk has been with CoinDesk for many, many winters now. |
| 1:32.1 | So she's been around and she's seen it all. And so we just take a peek under the hood |
| 1:36.0 | as to what's it like to be a crypto media company. CoinDesk is of course extremely large |
| 1:42.0 | of a media entity in crypto. And they are now abroad. And there are horizons to trad |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bankless, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bankless and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.