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Most bitcoin news is noise: price predictions, sponsored “reviews” and new coins that will not exist next year. This page lists the outlets we actually read, sorted by kind, with a line on who owns each one, because in this business the owner often tells you more than the masthead. A few are affiliate or referral links, marked as such; the choice of what to list has nothing to do with that.
Ownership and program details were checked on September 23, 2026.
How much news do you need? If you buy a fixed amount on a schedule and plan to hold for years, almost none. Nothing in the daily flow should change that plan, and the healthiest habit is one good weekly source rather than a feed. Pick one from each section at most.
News sites
- Bitcoin Magazine. The longest-running bitcoin-only publication, since 2012, easy to read and openly pro-bitcoin. Owned by BTC Inc, which also runs the annual Bitcoin Conference. We are an affiliate of its store, not its newsroom.
- Decrypt. Written for newcomers, with explainer guides beside the news. Covers all of crypto, not only bitcoin. Merged with the media company Rug Radio in 2023.
- CoinDesk. The biggest newsroom and the broadest market coverage. Owned since 2023 by Bullish, an exchange; in December 2024 the owner pulled an article and then dismissed three senior editors, which is worth knowing when you read its coverage of exchanges.
- The Block. Fast, well-sourced industry news and data. In 2022 it emerged that its then-CEO had secretly taken loans from Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research; it has since changed ownership and is majority-owned by Foresight Ventures.
- Protos. Small, independent and sceptical, with a habit of investigating the things other outlets promote. A good counterweight to everything else on this list.
Newsletters
- TFTC (Marty Bent). A daily bitcoin and macro digest with a clear point of view, plus a podcast. Its free newsletter is now called The Commoner; there is a paid tier. TFTC has a small referral program that pays a few hundred sats to each side once a friend reads four issues.
- The Bitcoin Layer (Nik Bhatia). The clearest bitcoin-and-macro newsletter for readers ready to go further: interest rates, the dollar system, and where bitcoin fits. Free edition plus a paid one.
- Milk Road. A daily beginner-friendly note that covers crypto, macro and AI in five minutes. Light, chatty, and honest about being light. Its referral rewards are reader perks such as guides and free months of its paid tier, not money.
- Bitcoin Optech. The weekly technical newsletter, free, for the day you want to know what the developers are working on. Advanced, and worth graduating to.
Podcasts
- Bitcoin Audible (Guy Swann). The classic bitcoin essays read aloud, with commentary. The best single podcast for a beginner, because the source material is the best writing in bitcoin.
- What Bitcoin Did. Long interviews with a wide range of guests, now hosted by Danny Knowles after founder Peter McCormack moved on to his own show.
- Swan Signal. A friendly weekly bitcoin show. It is made by Swan, a company that sells bitcoin, so treat it as the good kind of company media.
Forums and aggregators
- CryptoPanic. One page of headlines from dozens of outlets, with readers voting on whether each story is bullish, bearish or nonsense. The quickest way to see what everyone is talking about without subscribing to any of them. Free, with a paid tier called PLUS. It has no referral program, which is why this link is a plain one.
- Stacker News. A bitcoin-only discussion site where upvotes pay small amounts of bitcoin to the writer over Lightning. The discussion is better than most, and using it teaches Lightning by doing. It has a referral program that pays the referrer a share of a new user’s rewards.
- r/Bitcoin. Large and useful for beginner questions, and heavily moderated, which its critics call censorship and its moderators call keeping out spam. Ignore every private message offering help: those are scams.
Primary sources and reference
- Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. A nonprofit library of the whitepaper, Satoshi’s emails and forum posts, and the essays that shaped bitcoin. Free, and where the good podcasts get their material.
- Unchained blog. The best plain guides to self-custody, multisig and inheritance, from a company that sells those services.
- Look Into Bitcoin and Glassnode Insights. Charts of what is happening on the chain itself, with free weekly write-ups. For when you want data rather than opinion.
- Our own Glossary and Blockchain Explorers pages, for checking a term or a transaction for yourself.
Read with care
These come up in every search and are not all bad, but each has a catch a beginner should know about.
- Cointelegraph. Huge and readable, with a lot of labelled sponsored content and a steady stream of scams that impersonate its name. Fine for headlines; do not take an investment idea from it.
- Bitcoin.com News. Despite the name, it has long promoted Bitcoin Cash, a different coin, and its income includes affiliate deals with gambling sites. Confusing for a newcomer.
- NewsBTC and the price-prediction sites. Casino sponsors behind tracked links, a menu item for casinos, and promotions for tokens that do not trade yet. Pay-to-play. Skip.
- Anything that arrives by direct message, on any platform, including “support” accounts and “analysts” with a group to join. See Avoiding Scams.
Next
- Our own mailing list: a note when there is a new guide, and nothing else
- Blockchain Explorers
- Avoiding Scams