# All Time Low Awards 2026 By [Crypto Communications Collective](https://paragraph.com/@cryptocommscollective) · 2026-04-10 --- **_In honour of_** [**_Crypto Communications Collective_**](https://twitter.com/Crypto_Comms_) **_turning 3, we present the third edition of the All Time Low (ATL) awards! The ATL Awards honour the best-of-the-worst practices in the web3 & crypto media and communications landscape from the past year to date. And the winners are…_** **Founders Who Should Not Go Direct: All 7 founders in the Vanity Fair article** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The whole “founders should go direct” movement has been a little quieter, largely because Balaji got busy building his Network State School and, like everyone else, got distracted with AI, while Jon Wu upgraded to parenthood. For a long while, Jesse Pollak looked poised to take the crown, serving up a truly exquisite slice of wrong in his [“Base is for everyone and everything” post](https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1913230788411429108?t=JkVB4ZyUrpKqYA04Dq44Cg&s=19). This somehow [includes pimping and squirting](https://x.com/jacqmelinek/status/1913239619275051377?t=Bu_SKJpeoEXOYPIwHU1Now&s=19), for reasons unknown.And then, just when things seemed settled, as he was ready to be crowned, Vanity Fair’s _“_[_Crypto’s True Believers Demand to Be Taken Seriously_](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/cryptos-true-believers)_”_  got pubbed and all seven founders in the article swooped into a last-minute, landslide victory. Naturally, no founder can resist the siren call of a glossy mainstream feature, even when it comes with…very specific editorial choices. Like spotlighting the fact that one founder’s favourite pants had a hole in a rather unfortunate location. And then making sure said location got its own moment in the limelight. The _chef d'oeuvre_? A lovingly detailed BTS segment of the group deliberating over outfits, framed as human interest, but landing somewhere closer to existential satire. The vacuous portrayal of the founders transformed the article title from a plea for legitimacy into something resembling a collective [“adult tanty”](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tanty).   Even the [individual portraits felt less like profiles](https://x.com/DennisonBertram/status/2034013980771877353) and more like carefully staged exhibits in a “crypto, but make it absurd” gallery, a _“_[_work of deep disdain and mockery_](https://x.com/DennisonBertram/status/2034013991479996838)_”_. One just knows that every PR involved really tried - briefly, bravely, badly - to wave this off as a terrible idea, before being completely ignored in classic founder fashion. Yes, the industry wants to go mainstream. This… was not that. **Most Unhinged Story: $50M USDT Swap for $36K $AAVE**  ------------------------------------------------------- Over the past year, the usual headline-grabbing spectacle of crypto founders getting arrested has taken a bit of a backseat. It has however been replaced by something arguably more unsettling: [a wave of kidnappings](https://cointelegraph.com/news/france-charges-25-over-crypto-kidnapping-spree-paris) and good old-fashioned wrench attacks. That in itself is truly the stuff of nightmares, with [extremities severed](https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/05/05/father-crypto-millionaire-rescued-held-ransom-finger-severed/) and [attempts to snatch family members off the streets](https://decrypt.co/319612/paris-kidnapping-attempt-highlights-growing-threat-to-crypto-figures) in broad daylight.  Truly unhinged.  But in true crypto fashion, the industry simply couldn’t let real-world chaos have all the spotlight. Someone had to bring the madness back online. Our winner: a user who decided it was a perfectly reasonable idea [to swap $50 million in USDT for $AAVE](https://decrypt.co/360961/crypto-trader-loses-nearly-50m-aave-trade-600k-fee-refund), using the Aave interface. On their mobile phone.  Now, depending on your generational leanings, the most unhinged part varies. Some would argue it’s casually [having $50M ready to deploy](https://x.com/queenwartooth/status/2032194645581541715) on a mobile device. Others (read: millennials) were cringing at the use of a mobile device for such a large transaction. Some smelled fraud. Either way - deep breaths, everyone. The user was apparently warned about extraordinary slippage with the transaction and, depending on your read, either fat-fingered-fumbled into checking the confirmation box or [laundered millions to a friendly MEV bot](https://x.com/zacodil/status/2032207858767462798?s=20). The grand finale: roughly 324 $AAVE tokens in return. At the time, worth $36K. From $50 million. Millennials everywhere sighed with relief at being proven right, that no large transaction should ever be done on mobile devices. Gen Z users just blamed the protocol because nothing is ever their fault. On-chain sleuths screamed into the void. Mr Aave himself was sympathetic and [decided to return $600K in transaction fees](https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2032193345414664659) or 1.2% of the loss.  Because nothing says “it’s fine, everything is fine” quite like getting a small fraction of your obliterated fortune back. Big whoop, indeed. **Journo Who Should Not Be Pitched: What Journo?** -------------------------------------------------- In a shocking turn of events (mainly for those who remember when this category had actual candidates and voting results were really close), there unfortunately is no winner this year.  This is not out of restraint but because there are barely any journos left to judge.  Between layoffs and many turning to the “dark side” to become PRs, the once-bustling crypto media landscape now resembles an abandoned Telegram group chat.  The closest thing to a winner? The AI scrapers quietly consolidating content for what remains of crypto-native outlets. The classic “no reply” to a pitch was once the most dreaded thing for a PR, but it has now evolved into something even more definitive: the cold, clinical bounce-back email. Progress perhaps, as it’s now not you, it’s them.  In related nostalgia, our inaugural champion (in 2024) Brady Dale has resurfaced on X, picking up right where he left off - with a casual 44-tweet thread on how bad the state of crypto media is. Naturally, he couldn’t resist showcasing his obsession with hating PRs, with [one post dedicated to the claim that PR friendliness is actually a weapon](https://x.com/BradyDale/status/2000610297216688211). A knife, no less. 🔪 So, once again, we ask: will the PR who hurt him please stand up? **Best 15 minutes Of Fame: Coinbase Super Bowl Ad** --------------------------------------------------- Nostalgia. In a world so focused on the shiny and new, the bold and the algorithmically optimised, nothing cuts through the noise like bringing back the good ol' days.  [Coinbase used their Super Bowl ad spot](https://www.theblock.co/post/389084/coinbases-backstreet-boys-inspired-super-bowl-ad-divides-viewers) to showcase a 60-second karaoke singalong to _"Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"_ by the Backstreet Boys. And for approximately 58 glorious seconds, it worked. Nachos were suspended mid-air across the U.S. Grown adults in unison sang activated lyrics that they hadn't thought about since 1997. Then _"Coinbase"_ appeared. Followed by _"Crypto. For Everyone."_ And the room, one imagines, split rather cleanly down the middle. The great irony here is that Coinbase's last memorable Super Bowl moment, the one with the [legendary 2022 bouncing QR code](https://decrypt.co/92911/coinbase-qr-code-super-bowl-free-bitcoin-ad-20m-hits-minute), was at least measurable. Over 20 million people broke the site within a minute. ROI sorted.  But the real question that no one in that boardroom apparently thought to ask: _was that even the right Backstreet Boys song?_ That’s one that will haunt this campaign forever because if you're going to raid the nostalgia vault and bet the Super Bowl budget on it, you'd best make sure you picked the right track. Jake Peralta should know. **Worst Buzzword: Agentic \[anything\]** ---------------------------------------- Hot on the heels of last year’s linguistic crime against humanity winner, _“DeFAI”_ (still unclear if it’s a word or a cry for help), the industry has once again stuck to the _tech du jour_. With founders wanting to make sure that everyone knew of their AI-pivot, nothing says innovation like slapping an AI-prefix in front of literally anything.  Enter: **Agentic \[anything\]** Running agentic payments, building the rails of agentic finance, enabling agentic trading, setting up agentic infrastructure….all such agentic vibes. If it exists, it can and it will become “agentic”.  Welcome to the agentic economy.  This comes courtesy of the AI gold rush and seems to be a natural evolution of “DeFAI” where we moved from words no one can pronounce to words no one can define. Paradigm shift. Game changer.  Vibe coding was a close second to take home the trophy for this category but ultimately, the robots won. Next year’s winner? Probably already agentic generated. **Worst Media ‘Rugged’ Moment: Unchained Media's AI Fail** ---------------------------------------------------------- Speaking of AI replacing journos—what could possibly go wrong? Editorial guffaws are a time-honoured tradition, one where even the mighty [The New York Times has recently given](https://x.com/NYTimesPR/status/2040142477215056082) a classic “how did that make it past _multiple_ editorial eyes?” moment. Those at least come with the comprehensible excuse of stressful deadlines, caffeine dependency, and the occasional sleep-deprived typo. We get it. But over at Unchained Media, January 19 was just another day. Until it wasn’t. Their daily newsletter went out as usual, presumably after the rigorous editorial process of “copy-pasta-send.” Unfortunately for them, their readers actually read. And they spotted a tiny, glaring issue: not an em dash abuse scandal, but something far more poetic—an AI having an existential apology mid-article. Yes, nestled in the copy was this absolute gem of a confession: _“You’re absolutely right to call that out—and I appreciate you doing so…”_ Nothing says journalistic authority quite like accidentally publishing the chatbot’s apologetic response to being called out for being wrong.  It continues on with: _“You’re asking for original, accurate and engaging reporting in style that reflects journalistic integrity, and I fell short. Here’s a fully rewritten, 100% original version of the Ethereum transaction story in the style you’re after.”_ To be fair, from an editorial standard perspective, at least the writer did not accept the first draft and had sufficient critique. It does make one curious about how that first draft read. The evidence has since been [quietly scrubbed from the archives](https://unchainedcrypto.beehiiv.com/p/bitcoin-slides-below-92-000-as-tariff-fears-spark-risk-off-move). Because nothing embodies “read, write, own” quite like a swift delete and a collective decision to never speak of it again. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/11a1bce624750f57dab559a96fe82bea8d05c524566887bc34a9c8b64c15f4d8.png) **Most Questionable PR Moment: Coinbase sponsorship of US military parade** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This has always been a delicate one, given how many "questionable PR moments" arrive with a foundation of marketing hubris and C-suite ego. But this year's winner earned its crown with particular flair on the streets of Washington D.C., where subtlety was definitely not invited. [Coinbase’s sponsorship of the US army’s 250th anniversary military parade](https://www.dlnews.com/articles/people-culture/crypto-critics-blast-coinbase-sponsorship-of-us-army-parade/) raised more than a few eyebrows, especially with their representative gushing about this being an [“absolute personal honor”](https://x.com/karacalvert/status/1934264953881399316). This totally exposes the fact yet again, that many in this industry do not understand what [it truly stands for](https://x.com/ncerovac/status/1934240797064360245). One can give them a pass, knowing that some of these people have spent the better part of their career perfecting the Washington handshake on Capitol Hill. The military parade was already a lightning rod in itself. Controversial? Mildly. Politically loaded? Absolutely. A weird flex for a crypto company? Indubitably. To be fair, some will insist the military is apolitical. Coinbase’ involvement though, no matter which tinted glasses one looks through, there is only one conclusion - that it was a well-timed bid for political brownie points.  A titan, scaled from an industry born from ideals of decentralization, individual sovereignty, resistance to state overreach and a very specific disdain for exactly the kind of institutional power being celebrated with tanks and flyovers…enthusiastically sponsoring a state-sponsored show of force (one that is not even equally supported by its citizens).  If crypto was meant to challenge the system, this felt a lot like paying for a VIP seat at its parade. An interesting point is that another crypto company, [Hedera, was also on the list of sponsors](https://america250.org/our-partners/sponsors/), but it went largely unnoticed. **Most ‘Pay to Play’ Conference: Token2049 Dubai** -------------------------------------------------- Conferences. The lifeblood of the crypto industry. Where networking is just exchanges of Telegram handles and panels are recycled, and everyone is one lanyard away from reaching the top of the Zealy board.  While side events may be where the real action happens, the main stage remains the ultimate status symbol.  Thankfully, our favourite events guru, Crypto Nomads spared us the guesswork and did the math.  And the math was indeed mathing. At [Token2049 Dubai, the going rate clocks in at a cool $33,000 per minute](https://crypto-nomads.beehiiv.com/p/it-costs-33k-per-min-to-speak-at-this-conference?utm_source=crypto-nomads.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=it-costs-33k-per-min-to-speak-at-this-conference&_bhlid=658d32c136ff1a8a090d912438bf2a99d34b464f&jwt_token=) to speak. Next time you are in the audience, hang onto every word you hear and look up from your laptops. These groundbreaking insights are of high value. Of course, there are caveats. The usual headline acts, the industry’s perennial panelists and returning legends, don’t have to pay. They’re invited back year after year to share the same thoughts in slightly different outfits (more than likely the same though, since its mostly men). But for everyone else? If you lack the requisite clout, don’t worry, there’s the way of “collaborating” with the conference.  At least you'll get a video out of it. **Best Media 'Popcorn' Moment: The Defiants' Position on Blockworks News Layoffs (And Then Doing The Same)** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Media layoffs are not taken lightly as livelihoods are at stake. It is unfortunate that this moment had to happen. **_How it started:_** ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e68e7bc1b3ff7444adef17575b181c78e87f1329cc6f9c0e221557b50d724785.png) _How it went on:_ ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1967e3e8bc6cda57191ebdee8e0c9aacf36d9ea70fdc808bd84f388cf6463d4d.png) _How it ended:_ **2 march, 2026** ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/9b587684b62b3fe6cf44bc724b4408ecfa71791612e08ac78dc096f50bcfcbd4.png) Special Mention: Media 'Popcorn' Moment: CoinDesk Hijacking Cointelegraph's Google Index ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/8848eeed4afc4939d5a3a9cc84034cbf2ff6db1c10489374a42b0a405e7b1bb3.png) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ea40759f0e2c1669d3bde91e90973be1e455f3b4d74a319ba6eecf2f522d0a97.png) _And that’s a wrap on the CCC All Time Low Awards 2026! Thanks to our community for voting on these awards, and we hope you enjoyed this recap of the best-of-the-worst moments. The past year in web3 & crypto would not be the same without our winners. Read about_ [**_last year’s winners here_**](https://paragraph.com/@cryptocommscollective/all-time-low-awards-2025)_._ ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/121cfcb18559b675a04cc96786271c841283cdcb76cebe879a50db6b9c6c6e57.jpg) _Comments? DM us on our_ [**_X account_**](https://twitter.com/Crypto_Comms_)_._ --- *Originally published on [Crypto Communications Collective](https://paragraph.com/@cryptocommscollective/all-time-low-awards-2026)*