Crypto News Literacy

About this course

The crypto information environment is dominated by press releases dressed as news, paid coverage that omits disclosure, and metric-led narratives that fall apart on inspection. This six-lesson course teaches the reading skills that let you separate substantive coverage from manufactured. You'll learn why most crypto media is paid (and how to spot it), what token burns actually do versus what their announcements claim, how to interpret ETF flow numbers honestly, why exchange listings produce predictable price patterns, what kind of 'partnership' announcement actually moves a project's value, and how to decode APY claims against the underlying yield source. About 20 minutes per lesson. No investment advice — just the media-literacy skills that protect you from acting on stories engineered for you to act on.

What you'll be able to do

• Recognise paid coverage on sight by spotting the structural tells: press-release language, exclusively positive framing, source list of one (the project).
• Decode token-burn announcements against the underlying mechanism: deflationary effect, marketing burn, or no real supply impact.
• Read ETF inflow / outflow numbers honestly: what creates inflows, why a large inflow can be market-neutral basis trade rather than directional demand.
• Anticipate the pump-and-listing pattern around Tier-1 exchange listings and avoid being the exit liquidity.
• Distinguish the four types of 'partnership' announcement (MOU, integration, white-label, marketing) and recognise which actually mean anything.
• Decode APY claims against the source of yield: sustainable fee yield, emission yield, or Ponzi-like circular yield.

Lessons

1. 1

   Lesson 1 — Why most crypto coverage is paid (and how to spot it)

   ~20 min

   Crypto media runs on a press-release economy. Most positive coverage of a token is paid for. Today: how to recognise sponsored content on sight without relying on disclosure.

2. 2

   Lesson 2 — Token burns: what they actually do

   ~20 min

   Burn announcements are everywhere. Sometimes they matter for supply; sometimes they're marketing theatre. Today: how to tell which.

3. 3

   Lesson 3 — ETF flows: what BlackRock's inflow numbers actually mean

   ~22 min

   Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF flow numbers are reported daily. Today: how to read them honestly, especially the basis-trade caveat almost no one mentions.

4. 4

   Lesson 4 — Exchange listings and the pump-and-listing pattern

   ~20 min

   Major exchange listings produce predictable price patterns. Today: why, what to watch, and how to avoid being the exit liquidity.

5. 5

   Lesson 5 — Partnership announcements: the four types and which matter

   ~18 min

   Every project announces partnerships. Most mean nothing. Today: the four categories and how to recognise each.

6. 6

   Lesson 6 — APY claims: sustainable, emission, and Ponzi yield

   ~20 min

   Every DeFi protocol advertises an APY. Today: how to identify the source of yield and recognise which APYs are sustainable vs which are math waiting to break.

Final quiz

When you've worked through every lesson, pass the final quiz to mark the course complete. You can retry any number of times.