Written by: Ada, Deep Tide TechFlow

On a late night in 2025, Sea, the host of Sea Talk, opened his computer, preparing to edit the recently recorded episode. This was the part he found most agonizing; he needed to handle the verbal tics, fragmented expressions, and stutters in the two-hour dialogue recording.

However, this was only halfway through all the work. Next, he had to write shownotes, create video subtitles (proofreading professional terms and the mixed case of Chinese and English), design the cover, distribute across multiple platforms, and promote it.

Prior to this, he had already spent a week contacting guests, listening to all their interview shows, reviewing hundreds of their tweets, making phone calls to understand recent focal points, and forming an interview outline with 20-30 questions before entering the formal recording process, which took him over two hours.

Almost simultaneously, someone on X published a ten-thousand-word analysis report on the same topic. It was evident that this report was generated by AI, filled with the AI flavor of "not… but rather," and accompanied by AI-generated charts and conclusions. However, this did not prevent it from gaining attention. While Sea's self-proclaimed successful podcast episode's listen count was stuck at 1481, the reading volume of this AI article had already far exceeded it within 12 hours.

This is a true reflection of the current Chinese crypto content ecosystem: on one side, there is an industrialized production of information flooding in, and on the other, handcrafted content creation. According to market logic, the latter should have been eliminated long ago.

But strangely, more and more people in the crypto industry are starting podcasts.

Why?

To answer this question, we conducted in-depth interviews with six hosts of Chinese crypto podcasts: Liu Feng from "Web3 101," Bill from "Bill It Up," Mable from "HODLong," Vivienne and Zhiyang from "Cryptoria," and Sea from "Sea Talk."

Their podcast formats vary, and their levels of commercialization differ, but their narratives point in a common direction: in an information ecosystem rapidly occupied by AI, algorithms, and emotions, podcasts are becoming one of the few remaining forms of expression that can still preserve the "human presence."

The Cost of Not Taking Money

"When many people want to give me money, I often refuse," Mable said.

Mable is a pioneer in Chinese crypto podcasts. At the end of 2019, after joining the well-known crypto VC Multicoin Capital as an executive director, she quickly launched a podcast called "51%" in 2020, which became an enlightening podcast for many newcomers entering the crypto industry, but it always had a line in its introduction: "Presented by Multicoin."

In 2022, after leaving Multicoin to embark on her entrepreneurial journey, she created her own fully managed crypto podcast "HODLong." At the same time, as a new consumer investor, she also participated in building a podcast about Chinese brands called "牌牌坐."

One podcast focuses on crypto, while the other focuses on consumption, but they share a common point: no one tells her what to say or what not to say.

Mable has long maintained a one-person operation, with no team and no sponsorship; all topics, recording, editing, and publishing are done by her alone.

Maintaining the independence of her podcast has always been her attitude. She enjoys creating content, has her own pursuit of good content, and does not want to be tied down by advertisements or sponsorships. "If I take the money, I can't talk to whoever I want or say whatever I want," Mable said.

But this pursuit does come at a cost. The financial return on investment for independent podcasts is too low to be considered a business.

"But why have you persisted for so long?" we asked.

"Because I still want to talk," she replied without hesitation.

Liu Feng, the host of "Web3 101," also wants the freedom to speak. He is the former editor-in-chief of the crypto media "Chain News" and has worked at Bloomberg, making him a well-known media figure in the industry.

Liu Feng is very clear about the positioning of "Web3 101." He only wants to create vertical, in-depth content and is not concerned about sponsorship. His stance in interviews is clear: if a guest has obvious PR actions, he will not hesitate to cut the advertising segment, even if it means sacrificing the entire episode.

"Don't you worry that this will affect future communication with the guests?" we pressed.

"Then don't communicate; they don't actually respect our show," Liu Feng replied resolutely.

If for these elites, the cost of free speech is high, what about ordinary people? In 2026, how high is the cost to be heard in the public domain?

The answer may be surprising. As text is fragmented by algorithms, video requires on-screen presence and persona, and social media becomes an emotional battleground, podcasts have become one of the few channels that still allow "ordinary people to express themselves deeply."

From the timeline of the interviewees, the earliest creators began experimenting with podcasts in 2018-2019, but at that time, there were neither mature platforms nor commercial expectations; it was more of a "handy expression tool."

The real change occurred after 2022, as podcasts gained popularity due to other forms of expression systematically failing.

Text content was compressed into "opinion fragments" by algorithms, X gradually evolved into a battleground of positions and emotions, and video content had excessively high demands for identity exposure, production costs, and emotional management.

In this context, the value of podcasts has been rediscovered. Their information density may not be the highest, but the information is "structurally complete"; they spread slowly but allow for deep cognitive sedimentation.

When all media are pursuing "speed" and "ease," the "slowness" and "clumsiness" of podcasts have become a moat against nihilism.

The Paradox and Dilemma of Commercialization

Not all podcast hosts, like Mable, reject commercialization.

"We had sponsors when we only had a few hundred fans," Vivienne said, even she found it unbelievable.

"I really feel that aside from being lucky and grateful, there is nothing else to express. If we were doing an emotional or personal growth podcast, it would be absolutely impossible at this scale."

This is an interesting paradox in the crypto podcast space: the ceiling is low, but the threshold for monetization is also low.

The reason is simple: this is a market paid for by high-net-worth B-end clients. Project parties need to voice themselves in the Chinese world, while traditional advertising channels either cannot reach the target audience or are prohibitively expensive. A focused crypto podcast, even with only a few hundred precise subscribers, may be more valuable than a general account with a hundred thousand followers.

But that is only half the story. The other half is that even with sponsorship, the vast majority of crypto podcasts still do not make money.

Why?

Essentially, this is a niche market.

Liu Feng bluntly stated: "If Chinese crypto podcasts want to make big money through commercialization, they might as well consider giving up. But if it's for fun, everyone can keep going."

He analyzed that in-depth content has always been consumed as long-tail content by the audience, ultimately unable to compete with traffic-driven products. However, educating elite audiences is an expensive endeavor, and no one is willing to pay for it.

The Wall Street Journal once reported that the custom content price for top English crypto podcasts can reach $100,000 per episode. In China, currently, no podcast can reach this level.

This gap is not just about money; it is also about the difference in influence structures.

In the English-speaking world, podcasts have long become an important channel for elite discourse. Musk appears on Joe Rogan's show to talk for three hours, Trump goes on podcasts to campaign for votes during elections, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sits down to discuss the future of AI in depth. The influence of these conversations is comparable to any formal press conference.

But in the Chinese world, podcasts are still in their infancy. Entrepreneurs, policymakers, and industry leaders still prefer traditional media interviews or official statements as their expression channels. Podcasts are viewed as "niche, informal, and with limited influence" forms of expression.

In other words, making small money with podcasts is easy, but making big money is hard; accumulating influence is easy, but monetization is difficult. This is a common dilemma faced by all Chinese crypto podcast hosts.

Sea has a clear understanding of this: "I don't see crypto podcasts as a monetization tool. It is a medium for my expression. I have no expectations for commercialization, which lowers my expectations and reduces the communication loss with others."

This is also why, when exchanges and market makers approached Sea for brand collaborations, he still firmly refused. One reason is that there is no urgent expectation for monetization, and the other is that such sponsorship does not align with the tone of Sea Talk.

Gains That Cannot Be Measured in Money

From a purely investment return perspective, making podcasts is a bad deal. But almost all interviewed hosts mentioned a term: cognitive reconstruction.

"It forces me to think deeply," Vivienne said, "not only does it help me understand the industry better, but it also clarifies what I am suited for and what I am not."

In the past year, she has oscillated between job hunting, changing jobs, and returning to traditional finance, but the process of making podcasts has helped her clarify her direction. She knows clearly that if she were just working, it might take much longer to form this self-awareness.

Liu Feng has similar feelings. To clearly explain an episode, he must constantly break down appearances, question logic, and validate hypotheses. This is actually forcing himself to learn and reconstruct his understanding. Many times, after finishing an episode, he finds that his understanding of a certain issue has completely changed.

This reveals a hidden value of podcasts: they are not just channels for content output but also a form of mandatory cognitive training. The preparation process for each episode is a systematic sorting of a topic; each conversation with a guest is an exploration of one's cognitive boundaries.

Sea understands this from another dimension.

"I joke with my daughter that if she becomes interested in Bitcoin in the future, she can listen to my podcasts from these years." He paused and continued, "The voices from ten years ago and the words from ten years ago have different penetrating power."

He compares each episode of the podcast to "a snapshot of the guest's thoughts at this moment." Just like blockchain, it is recorded, placed there, and available for future generations to review. This is a temporal value. It does not generate immediate returns but will slowly ferment over time.

More simply, the process of making podcasts itself brings joy.

However, this "joy" needs to be redefined. The preparation and recording phases are stressful, and the editing phase is filled with anxiety. Only when the final product is out does the joy come. This is the real feeling of all podcast hosts. It can also be metaphorically described: the joy brought by making podcasts is "rebirth after self-torture."

The Methodology of Success

In the interviews, a fact that was repeatedly emphasized but often overlooked is that most failed podcasts do not lose out on viewpoints but on product awareness.

"Many people just record conversations," Liu Feng said, "but that does not equal a show."

There is an essential difference between "recording a conversation" and "producing a show." Sound quality, editing, and rhythm determine whether a show can be fully consumed in real-life scenarios like commuting or exercising. A show with poor sound quality, sluggish rhythm, and filled with verbal tics and redundant information, no matter how good the viewpoints are, will struggle to retain listeners.

Mable has a sharp observation: "Although there is serious homogenization, it doesn't feel very competitive because they are all not very good. There are not many high-quality crypto podcasts with product thinking."

Product awareness is just the basic threshold; the more challenging aspect is how to create truly valuable content in an industry where narratives change rapidly and viewpoints are constantly rewritten.

Liu Feng summarized a formula: find topics that everyone is generally concerned about, identify the most valuable and influential people, and then sincerely engage in deep conversations.

Bill's advice is more focused on the creators themselves: create content that you are good at, and then think about what users and listeners need in this era, what kind of information and insights can help them. Only by combining these two points can one continuously create good content.

But there is an even more insidious dilemma.

There are many expressers, but finding friends for deep communication is not easy. Opening Twitter or social circles, there are many people with a desire to express, all striving to output. However, if you really sit down to chat for an hour or two, you will find that many people's expressions can only linger for 15 seconds, making it difficult to form deep discussions.

This is a consequence of the short video era. People have become accustomed to fragmented output, losing the ability to express themselves in a structured and prolonged manner.

Sea validated this observation from another angle: "Many people have ideas, but they don't necessarily tweet every day like KOLs. Many of their insights are buried in their minds. If no one asks them, their insights cannot be expressed."

Therefore, as podcast hosts, one must act like information excavators, possessing structural capabilities. It’s not just about being articulate; it’s also about controlling the rhythm in conversations, capturing the main thread, and reorganizing information without interrupting the guests.

From this perspective, a good crypto podcast resembles a "slow variable." It does not create explosive moments but allows relationships and trust to settle over time, leading to profound insights.

How to Keep Going?

Vivienne clearly remembers when Cryptoria had just reached its 15th episode.

That day, she casually mentioned in the listener group, "I’m feeling a bit tired lately, not sure how long I can keep this up." She initially just wanted to vent, but unexpectedly, the group exploded with responses.

Some began to actively contact project parties, asking, "We have a podcast; would you consider sponsoring us?"; others directly initiated fundraising in the group, "Everyone contribute 50U, and that will cover three months." Some said, "Don’t stop; I listen to every episode; it’s my most important channel for understanding the industry."

Vivienne looked at those messages and suddenly cried. "At that moment, I realized that there are indeed people listening, and they care about what we are doing."

She now refers to the listener group as an "energy supply station," not because it brings in money, but because it proves that what you are doing is meaningful to some people.

This is also why Vivienne suggests establishing a listener group from day one of making a podcast. Because "don’t test human nature."

This makes sense. If you are doing something without immediate positive feedback, it is hard to keep going, no matter how passionate you are. The earlier you have a listener group, the sooner you can receive feedback on your content, which can help you adjust the content structure, depth, and topics, as well as attract like-minded people.

Bill's advice is concise and powerful: "What do you like and excel at? Spread that. Be persistent; don’t give up because of short-term difficulties." In his view, creating content is an infinite game. Platforms will change, the forms of content will be diverse, whether it’s posting, writing articles, making videos, or podcasting, but what is worth persisting in is the act of spreading.

Epilogue

Returning to the scene at the beginning of the article, when the data from the painstakingly produced episode still cannot compete with an AI-generated article, should one still persist?

This is a realistic question, and the answer lies in the meaning of podcasts.

That AI-generated analysis was drowned in a new flood of information within 24 hours, and no one remembers what it said. The meticulously crafted podcast episode continues to be listened to three months later, with people discussing it in the comments section and sharing it with friends. It has become a "standard reference" for a specific topic, repeatedly cited.

Mable is right: "In the AI era, being noticed and remembered as a real person is valuable in itself."

In an environment filled with copy-pasting, AI generation, and profit-driven information, a genuine conversation and an honest expression of viewpoints are becoming exceptionally precious. This may be the most unique value proposition of crypto podcasts.

They don’t make money, they are inefficient, and their audience is limited. But they record real people, real thoughts, and real moments in this industry.

As Zhiyang said: "Making podcasts brings many unexpected gains, and these gains come to you rather than requiring you to struggle to open each door."

The hosts of Chinese crypto podcasts may not realize how important what they are doing is.

They think they are just recording an industry, but in reality, they are resisting a trend—the industrialized production of information that pressures human expression.

They may never get rich from this, and their shows may only ever have a few thousand listeners. But looking back in ten years, these voices may be the most precious footnotes for understanding this era.

Amidst the ruins of traffic, they are rebuilding a stronghold for deep content.

While blockchain records wealth, podcasts capture vibrant souls.

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