Beyond price prediction: sentiment, emotional framing, and thematic focus in cryptocurrency newspaper coverage

This study presents a large-scale analysis of newspaper coverage of cryptocurrency across a seventeen-year period (2009–2026). Drawing on 66,173 articles from multiple publications, annotated using GPT-4o-mini, we examine the distribution of sentiment, emotional framing, and thematic focus in newspapers covering cryptocurrency topics. The findings show that the coverage sentiment is mixed, with positive coverage slightly outweighing negative coverage. Sentiment is strongly impacted by theme of an article. Adoption and technology articles are overwhelmingly positive, while security and fraud, and market volatility coverage is predominantly negative. A chi-square test confirms a large, statistically significant topic–sentiment association. In addition, Optimism is the dominant emotion and account for about one third of the article, while Concern and Cautious Optimism together account for nearly one third of the articles. An OLS regression reveals a small but significant positive trend in sentiment over time, consistent with the gradual normalization of cryptocurrency in mainstream financial journalism.