Because the cryptocurrency space is still so premature, the mainstream media has bigger fish to fry as far as covering a range of industries that already demand their full attention. That means a lot of breaking cryptocurrency news is delivered person-to-person on social media, which is exciting and gives traders an “on the ground” kind of feeling.
The fact of the matter is that the crypto ecosystem is extremely news-driven at present. Consider how the price of OmiseGo (OMG) acutely surged on December 11th after Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin hailed the project as bearing his favorite token model. Traders spread the comment like wildfire on social media, and people let the FOMO (“fear on missing out”) rip accordingly.
Right now my favorite token model is OMG-style staking tokens. Reasons:
* Not a medium-of-exchange token
* Clear valuation model (expected discounted future tx fees minus node operation cost)
* Requires running node to get returns, not passive income (so more legally defensible)— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 12, 2017
This is just one example out of thousands. To be a cryptocurrency trader is to be someone that pours through crypto-based social media fairly regularly for news and insights.
We'll point you in the direction of where the most productive chatter is taking place.
Twitter's a natural place to start, then, right?
Credited with giving life to the Arab Spring years ago, Twitter has become a titanic societal tool in its own right over the last several years. And when it comes to cryptocurrencies, this tool is being used to spread breaking developments fast and far just the same.
In this sense, Twitter's a bit like an AP News or Reuters, in that it constantly provides news “bulletins” (i.e. tweets) that other media outlets pick up on and write stories on. Twitter breaks a ton of news in crypto because it kind of decentralizes reporters: its users report from all over the world, 24/7. Literally!
The difference is that there are shills, trolls, and extremely misinformed people on Twitter unlike the consummate staffs of AP News or Reuters. But that just means you'll have to be meticulous and scrutinizing in how you evaluate tweets.
Follow some major accounts. Watch the debates. Search among the “Latest” tweets. Twitter is a mainstay for traders.
Reddit has users that aggregate news on “sub-reddits.”
If there's a particular crypto project that you're a big fan of and want to stay up to date on, then you should go follow that project's associated subreddit immediately. There, you'll find a concentrated and constant stream of informative developments and critical conversations.
There are heavyweights like r/Bitcoin and r/btc. There's r/ethtrader and r/Ethereum. Virtually every cryptocoin project has a subreddit, so go subscribe to a few and stay informed!
As you can imagine, Facebook has loads of crypto-based trading groups where traders can come to share and discuss news.
There won't be any info in these groups you can't find on Reddit and Twitter, but it's a good place to engage in conversations and pick other traders brains. Can't hurt!
Telegram
Telegram is a phone-based chat service that caters toward users who want to have private crypto trader chatrooms.
Every major crypto project has a Telegram chat that you can join. And there are seemingly a limitless number of informal private chats that you should be able to join to stay current on all the news.
These Telegram chats are a great place for debate and news tips, so keep your eyes peeled,
Steemit
Steemit is sort of like Reddit, but users get paid in the cryptocurrency STEEM for posting strong content. As such, there's lots of news-driven postings and analysis on the site.
It's definitely a neat platform that's worth checking out. But you'll want to turn to other social media sites first to get your “hard” crypto news.
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