There's no shortage of agencies claiming to be a top crypto PR agency, and most of the "best crypto PR agencies" lists online are published by the agencies themselves as lead generation, which makes them a weak way to actually evaluate anyone, including us. This is a guide to what's worth checking directly instead.
Ask for specific outlet relationships, not a claimed number
"200+ media platforms" or "1,000+ placements" is a common claim across the industry and tells a buyer almost nothing on its own. What matters is whether an agency can point to specific, real coverage in the outlets that actually matter for this category: CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Decrypt and comparable publications. Ask which named clients they've placed in which named outlets, and be sceptical of an agency that can't answer that directly.
Check how they handle the regulatory side
A crypto PR agency that doesn't flag securities-law risk in a token-related pitch is a real liability, not a minor gap. Ask directly: does the agency check announcements against securities-law risk before distribution? Do they expect a project's legal counsel to review token-related claims? An agency that treats this as someone else's problem is a warning sign.
Ask what a "campaign" actually includes
Some agencies sell press release distribution (a wire blast) as if it were media relations (direct journalist outreach). These are genuinely different services at genuinely different price points, and it's worth asking exactly what's included: is this a distribution service, or does it include direct pitching to named journalists at named outlets?
Look for founder visibility as part of the offer, not an afterthought
Crypto PR that only activates around a launch misses the value of ongoing founder visibility, commentary, conference appearances, a consistent presence, that makes the next announcement land more easily. An agency worth hiring should talk about this as a continuous practice, not a one-off deliverable.
Ask about AI visibility specifically
This is newer ground, and most crypto PR agencies haven't built a real capability here yet, treating "AI visibility" as a buzzword bolted onto an existing service list. Ask what specifically an agency does to help a project get cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, beyond generic SEO advice. The earned coverage that drives traditional crypto PR results is also what drives AI citation in this category, which is worth understanding as one connected strategy rather than two separate line items.
What we'd say about ourselves, held to the same standard
White Ocean Media has run more than 100 PR campaigns for blockchain, exchange and DeFi projects, with confirmed coverage secured in CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Decrypt, Bitcoin.com, CryptoSlate and CryptoPotato, for clients including Zeebu, Orderly Network, Stader Labs and Ordenco. See the full track record, and judge it by the same questions above rather than taking our word for it.