Web3 PR for Chinese Diaspora: PANews, ChainCatcher, and Beyond

The Chinese-speaking crypto audience is one of the largest, most capital-dense, and most strategically underserved in Web3 PR. Founders running global campaigns consistently treat it as an afterthought — translating an English press release at 11 PM, pasting it into a Telegram group, and calling it APAC coverage.

That approach doesn't work. Not because the outlets are hard to reach, but because you're sending the wrong signal, to the wrong person, in the wrong format, at the wrong time.

I've worked across APAC for the better part of six years — APAC Lead at CoinMarketCap, now leading APAC PR at Myosin — and the Chinese diaspora media market is genuinely different from every other region I operate in. This post breaks down why, and what to do about it.

---

Why Chinese diaspora media is not a translation problem

The first mistake is calling it "Chinese media" as a monolith. There's no New York Times of Chinese crypto. What exists instead is a collection of outlet clusters, each with a different ownership structure, different editorial incentives, and a different reader profile.

The outlets serving the Chinese diaspora — Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and overseas Mandarin-speaking communities — publish in simplified or traditional Chinese, distribute across Telegram channels and WeChat Official Accounts, and operate on editorial rhythms that peak between 18:00 and 21:00 CST (that's 10 PM Singapore, well after your US-timed launch has already faded from timelines).

The second mistake is assuming these outlets work like CoinDesk or The Block. Many Chinese crypto media properties operate within exchange-anchored ecosystems. Exchanges act as distribution layers: listings, integrations, and partnerships shape which stories get visibility. Ignoring this reality means you'll miss reach and misread why some pitches land and others don't.

None of this means coverage is pay-to-play. The editorial teams at PANews and ChainCatcher run serious research operations. But you need to understand the ecosystem before you approach it.

---

The outlets: what they actually cover and who reads them

PANews is the outlet I'd call the research anchor of Chinese-language Web3 media. Founded in March 2018 and co-founded by two Forbes Asia "30 Under 30" listers, PANews functions more like a think tank than a news wire. Its team has an international background, and its content combines overseas market trends with local interpretation for Chinese readers. If you're looking for where serious institutional Chinese investors go to read analysis of funding rounds, ecosystem development, and macro positioning, PANews is it. It co-hosts Ethereum events alongside organizations like Wanxiang Blockchain Labs. That context matters: a pitch that reads like a news release will get filtered; a pitch with a genuine analytical angle has a real shot.

ChainCatcher was founded in 2018 and sits at roughly 300,000 monthly visits, with a readership made up primarily of professional investors and industry insiders. Its reports are known for depth and unique perspective. It also runs its own data services and industry events, which means it's not purely editorial — there are sponsorship and partnership pathways that matter for event-heavy announcements. For my client RiskLayer's builders-round funding, we secured pickups across ChainCatcher alongside TechFlow, Jinse, PANews, and Blocktempo. The common thread in that run: the story had genuine on-chain data, a named institutional backer, and a clear DeFi security angle that the Chinese DePIN and restaking audience cared about.

BlockBeats (律动) is the fast-moving amplifier. Founded in 2018, it was the first Chinese media outlet to introduce concepts like "fat protocol" and Web3.0 to Chinese internet readers. It publishes across China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and its 600,000 to 700,000 monthly visits skew toward active traders and protocol-native readers. The Newsflash format makes it ideal for time-sensitive announcements. If something breaks in Western crypto media at 2 PM EST, BlockBeats will typically have a Chinese-language summary up within an hour. You want to be the one briefing them before they translate your competitor.

TechFlow is where the founders and developers read. It positions itself explicitly as a think-tank media for blockchain technology entrepreneurs, with a focus on the intersection of Web3 and AI. If you're an infrastructure protocol, a DePIN project, or an AI-blockchain hybrid, TechFlow's editorial team will engage with technical depth that most other outlets won't bother with.

Jinse Finance (金色财经) is the highest-volume outlet in the group — founded in 2017, millions of monthly visitors, comprehensive market news coverage across Bitcoin, blockchain, and crypto. Jinse syndicates into Tencent, Sina, and Toutiao, which means placements there reach readers outside the crypto-native audience. It's the right outlet for mainstream-crossover narratives: exchange listings, major funding rounds, Hong Kong SFC regulatory milestones.

Odaily is backed by 36Kr (China's leading tech media group), which gives it mainstream distribution credibility. It runs 500,000 to 1 million monthly users and has strong coverage of NFTs and DeFi. The 36Kr backing means Odaily editors often think about how a Web3 story translates to a broader tech-investor audience — a frame you can use in your pitch.

Blocktempo serves Taiwan specifically. It's the country's leading crypto media platform, and it's the outlet to prioritize for anything with a Taiwanese exchange, VC, or developer ecosystem angle. ChainCatcher and Blocktempo co-produced the 2024 Asia-Pacific Crypto VC Research Report, which tells you how seriously the Taiwanese audience takes cross-strait institutional credibility.

A note on Forkast: Forkast News was founded in Hong Kong in 2018, served as the region's defining English-language bridge to the Asian crypto audience, and wound down its editorial operations in late 2023 after merging with CryptoSlam to form Forkast Labs. The gap it left in English-language APAC crypto coverage is real. CoinDesk Asia and several newer outlets have moved to fill it, but there's no direct replacement. If someone tells you to pitch Forkast for crypto news, update their media list.

---

How the distribution actually moves

Most English-language PR guides treat publication as the end of the funnel. In Chinese diaspora media, it's the beginning.

An article in PANews or BlockBeats will typically be picked up and redistributed across Telegram channels within minutes of publication. Chinese crypto media outlets maintain their own Telegram newsflash channels with tens of thousands of subscribers — BlockBeats' Telegram channel in particular is one of the most-watched real-time sources for Chinese-speaking traders globally. After the exchange-crackdown years that drove crypto communities off WeChat, Telegram became the primary distribution layer for Chinese diaspora crypto news.

WeChat still matters — but differently. WeChat Official Accounts function as owned media for projects and protocols: controlled newsletters that reach existing community members. For organic editorial pickup, you're not pitching WeChat directly; you're pitching the outlets that then get redistributed through WeChat channels.

The practical sequence looks like this:

1. Your pitch lands at BlockBeats, PANews, or ChainCatcher via Telegram DM or email.
2. An article publishes (ideally between 18:00 and 21:00 CST for maximum engagement).
3. The outlet distributes via its own Telegram newsflash channel.
4. Traders and community managers in WeChat groups share the link.
5. KOLs with followings on Chinese X (Twitter) amplify with commentary.

If you're not coordinating steps 2 through 5, you're leaving most of the reach on the table.

---

The Hong Kong SFC licensing narrative: how it travels

Hong Kong's regulatory posture has become the single most powerful credibility signal in the Chinese diaspora market. The SFC has issued a growing number of crypto trading licenses since mid-2024, and its ASPIRe roadmap — which now allows licensed exchanges to integrate their order books with global platforms — positions Hong Kong as the compliance gateway to Greater China capital.

For founders with an SFC-licensed narrative, that's a tier-1 angle with the Chinese diaspora press. PANews readers are institutional. ChainCatcher readers are professional investors. These audiences care whether your protocol can be accessed through a licensed venue, whether you're integrated with one of the seven-plus SFC-licensed exchanges, and whether your compliance posture is compatible with Hong Kong's framework.

If your project is seeking institutional Chinese capital but doesn't yet have an HK regulatory hook, the alternative is to build the story around a named Hong Kong-based investor, an advisor with SFC-relevant credibility, or a listed partnership with an SFC-licensed exchange. The absence of regulatory clarity is exactly the signal that gets your pitch deprioritized.

This isn't just theory. When I worked on DePIN Day Hong Kong for Fluence x Titan Network, the Chinese-language pickup in Blocktempo came because the event was anchored in Hong Kong, there was a named local partner, and the compute narrative spoke directly to infrastructure interests the Chinese tech investor community already tracked.

---

Structuring a bilingual press strategy

A single English-language press release with a machine-translated Chinese version is not a bilingual strategy. It's a credibility problem.

The Chinese-language version needs to be:

• Written in simplified Chinese for mainland diaspora audiences (PANews, ChainCatcher, BlockBeats, TechFlow, Jinse, Odaily) or traditional Chinese for Taiwan and Hong Kong (Blocktempo, some HK outlets).
• Re-angled, not just translated. The English version might lead with total funding raised. The Chinese version should lead with which APAC ecosystem partners are involved, which exchange listing follows, and which institutional Chinese investors participated — because that's what drives editorial interest in these markets.
• Shorter in the body, with a stronger data hook. Chinese crypto editors, especially at PANews and ChainCatcher, are more likely to pull statistics and on-chain data as their editorial spine than the founder quote that dominates English-language coverage.

The pitch itself should go via Telegram DM to named editors, not to a generic press inbox. Most Chinese crypto outlets have Telegram channels where their editors are active and accessible. A three-sentence pitch in Chinese, with a link to the bilingual release, works far better than a formal email sent to a form address.

Networking and outreach skills are so so important in web3! Irrespective of whether you're working in BD, partnerships, PR, devrel or community — being able to network and reach out to new folks in time can work wonders. Shilika Jain on X, 10 Aug 2023

That holds in every language. The Chinese diaspora media market specifically rewards warm introductions — from a shared investor, from an exchange partner, from another founder who has already placed coverage. Cold outreach to a PANews editor with no prior relationship can work, but a warm intro from someone they already trust cuts the response time from weeks to hours.

---

Common mistakes that kill Chinese diaspora pitches

Pitching in English only. Even at outlets with bilingual team members, an English-only pitch signals that Chinese readers are an afterthought. Some editors will pass; most won't reply.

Leading with token price or return projections. Chinese crypto editors are sophisticated. Anything that reads like a pump signal gets filtered immediately, both because it damages their credibility and because it's not a story — it's a press release for a marketing team.

Sending on a US timeline. A press release embargoed to lift at 8 AM EST lands at 9 PM CST. Chinese editorial cycles peak in early evening CST. You'll miss the first-day cycle entirely, which means you don't get the BlockBeats Telegram newsflash pickup, and the story is already two days old by the time Chinese editors revisit their inboxes.

Using the same angle for every outlet. PANews wants analytical depth and market positioning. Jinse wants a quick news hook for high volume. TechFlow wants the technical architecture story. BlockBeats wants a fast summary with a data point. One pitch, one angle, sent to all four simultaneously — that's four rejections.

Neglecting Blocktempo for Taiwan. Founders running an APAC campaign who exclude Taiwan lose access to one of the most crypto-active and technically sophisticated investor markets in the region. Taiwan's crypto adoption per capita is genuinely high, and Blocktempo has established itself as the credible editorial voice for that audience.

---

What the competitive landscape on the English SERP doesn't tell you

Every English-language guide to Chinese crypto media gives you outlet names and monthly visit numbers. Almost none of them tell you the exchange-media relationships that shape what actually gets covered, the editorial preferences by outlet, the CST timing issue, or the difference between a PANews research pitch and a Jinse news-flash pitch.

That gap is the operational problem. You can build a media list from a PANews article on Chinese crypto outlets. You can't build a working pitch strategy from one.

If you're running a global campaign with Chinese diaspora coverage as a meaningful objective, the move is to bring in someone who has the Telegram relationships, the bilingual pitch capability, and the track record of placements in this specific cluster of outlets — not someone who has placed CoinDesk articles and assumes the same approach transfers.

It doesn't.

---

Book a 30-min teardown with Shilika — we'll look at your current narrative, which Chinese outlets it's right for, and what the bilingual pitch should actually say.