Banks and payment companies spent years testing crypto at the edges. By early 2026, they were pulling it into core products through tokenized funds, regulated trading services, and stablecoin infrastructure. J.P. Morgan put money market funds onchain, while Mastercard moved to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion.
The institutional era brought new questions for crypto companies to answer. Institutional clients want to know how a product is governed, how risk is managed, and who is accountable when something goes wrong. Newsrooms look for relevance beyond a launch, while policymakers scrutinize the claims themselves. Crypto companies that once spoke mainly to traders and online communities now face audiences with stricter standards of proof.
From a specialist crypto shop to a global agency
Mary Pedler, founder of global communications agency INPUT Global, has built her career around that communication gap. Her agency serves big industry names, including Tether, Ledger, Bitget, CBI and Outlier Ventures, across blockchain, fintech, banking, and AI.
Pedler entered the field through international journalism. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the subject before moving into communications. In 2021, she launched CryptoColumnist as a specialist PR agency for blockchain projects. Client needs soon extended beyond crypto media relations, and the firm expanded its sector coverage under the INPUT Global name. Oleg Bevz joined as co-founder in 2023 after senior marketing roles at Hacken and Blockster.
CryptoColumnist initially worked mainly with Web3-native businesses, including gaming companies and memecoin launchpads. As the market matured, the agency rebranded as INPUT and began working with larger infrastructure, payments and financial-services companies. Its campaigns have helped partners secure more than $580 million in funding and generated an aggregate reach of more than 5.3 billion.
“Five years ago, crypto conferences were dominated by founders speaking to other founders and retail audiences,” Pedler told Tech Times. “Now there are far more banks, payment companies and institutional investors in the room. The companies have grown up, but many of their pitches have not. They still take the same social-media story into meetings where people want to know how the product works, where the risk sits and what evidence supports the claim.”
Putting both sides in the same room
At the (un)Banked conference in Amsterdam, INPUT brought bankers, crypto infrastructure builders and investors together under the theme “Systems Change, Money Stays.” Executives from Standard Chartered Luxembourg, Paybis, Wirex, VanEck and Dragonfly examined how payments, custody, trading and yield are moving onchain piece by piece. Held alongside Money20/20 Europe, the event gave the people building both sides of that transition a place to compare operating realities.
The discussions moved quickly from broad adoption claims to licensing, liquidity, customer experience, portfolio management and banking infrastructure. Founders heard directly what makes banks cautious about digital assets. Finance executives, in turn, saw regulated uses already appearing in payments and investment products. Each side gained a closer view of the constraints that the other faces.
Executive visibility gets the same treatment through Voice, Pedler’s framework for personal brand growth. Most personal-brand programs treat follower count as the primary measure of progress. INPUT looks instead at the reach of a founder’s typical post, then considers publishing consistency, distribution, audience response, third-party authority and whether the executive has built a recognizable format. The framework gives founders a clear roadmap to publish reliably, develop distribution beyond owned channels, earn outside validation and create a format that audiences can recognize, with the zero-to-100 Voice Index showing which of those areas needs attention next.
When communications becomes part of the product
Communications now affects more than press coverage. The way a company describes its product can influence a compliance review, speed up or delay a partner’s evaluation, and determine whether its executives are prepared for wider scrutiny. It also plays a role in due diligence and sales discussions.
“A few years ago, a loud founder could create a sense of momentum very quickly,” Pedler says. “Now people ask harder questions. Who else trusts you? What risk do you carry? Can you explain how the product fits into existing systems? Does the story still make sense when the market is quiet? Those answers matter more than posting every day.”
Tokenized funds, stablecoin infrastructure and other onchain services are entering regulated finance. Communications teams therefore need to be involved before launch, not brought in afterward. Product claims must hold up during legal review, partner meetings, sales calls and public scrutiny. Agencies will be judged less by coverage volume than by whether clients can clearly explain and defend what they offer.
Featured image via INPUT Global
