Crypto News Publisher Reportedly Seeks Buyer After Search Penalty Cuts Web Traffic

Cointelegraph, a crypto news and media company founded in 2013 is looking for a buyer, according to a person familiar with the matter. The publisher’s web traffic has fallen sharply since Google issued a manual penalty against its website in October 2025. The asking price was not disclosed, and the company has not confirmed the reported sale effort.

A Single Anonymous Source, No Price Disclosed

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private. The person did not say how much the company is seeking or who may have been approached. The publisher did not immediately respond to requests for comment, so the sale effort rests on one unnamed source and has not been confirmed by the company, although the company posted on X: 

“We are not for sale.”

The company is known for illustrating its news coverage with cartoon-style characters. It has more than 200 employees, according to its LinkedIn page, and operates regional editions in addition to its main site.

Traffic Has Collapsed Since the Penalty

The publisher lost about 80% of its organic search traffic after Google issued a manual penalty in October 2025, which caused its website to disappear from Google’s search results. A manual penalty is applied by Google reviewers rather than by an automated ranking change, and it can remove a site from search results until the underlying issue is addressed and the penalty is lifted.

Similarweb data show the site drew more than 12 million monthly visits in December 2024. As of Sept. 1, monthly traffic stood just above 700,000. That is a decline of roughly 94% between the two data points. The gap is larger than the 80% organic search drop attributed to the penalty because the figures measure different things over different periods: total monthly visits across all traffic sources versus the loss of organic search traffic after the October 2025 action.

For a publisher that depends on search to reach readers, losing visibility in Google results removes the main channel through which many readers find its articles. Advertising revenue at news sites generally tracks traffic volume, so a drop of this size can put pressure on a publisher’s finances, though the company’s own financial results were not disclosed.

An Earlier Security Incident and a Weak Market

The penalty was not the only setback the company faced in recent years. In June 2025, its website was compromised by a front-end exploit that displayed a fake phishing airdrop pop-up to visitors. A front-end exploit alters what users see on a site’s pages rather than breaching the underlying systems that store data.

The source also pointed to market conditions. A prolonged period of depressed, flat crypto prices led user attention to shift away from crypto news, which adversely affected several digital asset newsrooms. Reader interest in crypto coverage tends to follow price action, and extended stretches of low volatility can reduce traffic across the sector.

Ownership History

The company’s regional business in the Middle East and North Africa was last acquired in July 2022 by Luna Media Corporation, which said at the time that the deal was meant to fund global and regional expansion. The source material did not say whether Luna Media is involved in the reported sale effort or who the current owners are.

No buyer has been identified, and no timeline for a transaction was given. Until the company confirms the effort or a deal is announced, the reported sale remains unverified.

Several details that would shape any sale are also unknown, including the company’s revenue, its debt, whether the manual penalty has been lifted and how much of its audience would return if search visibility were restored. Buyers of digital media businesses typically weigh those factors alongside traffic, brand recognition and the size of the staff. The source did not address any of them.