The problem with crypto as a solution is that there isn't much money to be made from the pool of crypto users, they are a small niche and notoriously low spende

The problem with crypto as a solution is that there isn't much money to be made from the pool of crypto users, they are a small niche and notoriously low spenders (a fact that anyone who has accepted bitcoin payments for legal products/services can attest to). Of course, more money is better than less money, however we're talking about a drop in the bucket, not a real solution for publishers. Finally, there's also a strong political ideology that tracks pretty well with crypto-users that would make it additionally prohibitive for many flavors of journalism.