Catherine Jenkin
Co-Founder and Head of Editorial at Kernel Media
Many people know you as Opinion Editor at Cointelegraph, one of the most prominent names in crypto media. But your work in fintech and blockchain goes far beyond that role. How do you hold all of those threads together, and is there an overarching vision that connects them for you?
The through-line has always been effective communication, and that’s specifically something I exist to do, making complex ideas legible to the people who need to act on them.
Whether it’s a health NGO trying to reach rural communities, a fintech startup explaining its product to investors, or a crypto project building credibility with a sceptical mainstream audience, the challenge is the same: clarity, trust, and narrative coherence. Cointelegraph gave me one platform to do that at scale, but the vision itself predates the role by about two decades.
I also work at OM Bank, head up strategic partnerships at BankerX, and am a Co-founder at Kernel Media, so my work across TradFi and AltFi is oddly connected, especially as TradFi has begun to further integrate blockchain and more. It’s an exciting time to work across both spaces.
Oh, and thanks for NOT asking me how I “balance” it all, which is the typical “women at work” question. I simply get the work done and move to build momentum. I don’t work overtime to prove my worth. Ever. My worth proves itself through my work, and that’s what keeps me committed. Beyond that, my life is built with work as an enabler for everything else I am and do.
That’s a refreshing perspective, since there exists a fairly common belief that one should have some specific “technique” for managing responsibilities. But returning to your career, you entered the crypto space around 2018. What brought you here? Were you passionate about the industry from the beginning, or did that build over time?
It’s a bit of a funny story, actually, because I can be pushy when I want to be. I’ve worked with James Preston — the CEO and founder of Kernel Media — on many projects over many years. As he threw his weight into building what was then SA Crypto (and which spun out into GlobalCrypto and now Kernel Media), I noisily asked him if I could help in any way. Luckily, he’s used to me doing this, and it always pays off as we get to investigate and build together, yet again.
The blockchain space had always interested me because of the builder community. Later on, the conviction set in and the writing followed. I followed the work, as I always have. Now I deal with top-notch clients in alternative finance and projects that need someone who can translate technical complexity into human language.
The deeper I went, the more I saw what this technology could mean for economies like South Africa's, for people who've been systematically excluded from traditional financial systems. By then, we were beyond the niche and had, as they say, “gone mainstream.” It’s been all-encompassing to grow as the sector has, and I consider it a privilege.
Since you have seen content and communications from virtually every angle, do you notice any consistent gaps between how fintech and crypto companies want to tell their story and how it actually lands, considering that 360-degree perspective?
Such gaps almost always live in the same place: with companies leading with the technology instead of the transformation. They're often so in love with the mechanism that they forget to tell you what changes for the person on the other end of it.
Another consistent misalignment is trust — or, rather, the absence of it. In an industry that has a real and ongoing reputation problem, too many projects still communicate like they're preaching to converts rather than earning the confidence of sceptics.
Luckily, I can see we’re moving beyond the initial scammer phase that always happens in market cycles. At the beginning, everyone was trying to get someone to part with their Bitcoin. Nowadays, scams are far more sophisticated, albeit still heavily reliant on social engineering of a different sort.
There is also one gap I have spotted that I’m not talking about just yet. What I can say is watch out for what Kernel Media will bring to life over the next year or two.
Staying on the topic of visibility gaps, you previously mentioned South Africa and the impact blockchain can have in such regions. Building on that point, despite high grassroots adoption, African founders rarely get the same global attention. What's the hold-up here, and where do you see Africa’s blockchain ecosystem in five years?
Adoption is grassroots, yes, but coverage is still largely shaped through the Western lens. African founders are building real solutions to real problems, but the global crypto media ecosystem was built more to cover price movements and Silicon Valley rounds than to amplify stories like those.
This visibility gap has nothing to do with talent or innovation, and is rather an issue of infrastructure and gatekeeping. In five years, I think that will shift, partly because the numbers will become impossible to ignore, and partly because more African voices are now in editorial positions to tell those stories on their own terms.
On this, though, I have to say again, watch this space. At Kernel Media, I’m entrusted by my fellow Co-founders to narrow this gap just a little.
That idea of gatekeeping is interesting. In your X thread, you have written about Web3 being a traditionally male-centric environment, where some people still treat women with kid gloves. Why do you think one of the most forward-thinking and dynamic industries is still carrying this problem?
Web3 is forward-thinking in technology and often remarkably backward in culture. That gap exists because the two things don't automatically travel together, and building on a new financial architecture doesn't mean you've rebuilt the social one. The “kid gloves” treatment is its own form of condescension, as it signals that your presence is being managed rather than simply expected.
What I've found, though, is that the people who don't do that sort of thing are almost always the same type: the builders, the journalists genuinely chasing truth, the founders who are too focused on what they're creating to be distracted by who's sitting across from them. Those are my people, and finding them is one of the best filters this industry offers.
Am I seeing a shift? Slowly. The builders were always there — you just have to keep finding them.
This kind of cultural lag says a lot about the industry. Finally, journalists and editors often prioritise platforming female founders and builders. Do you think it's the right approach, or does it risk becoming tokenism?
My honest answer is that the framing of the question slightly misses the point. The question isn't whether to platform women, but whether you see women as pretty or as purposeful. Those are different editorial instincts, and they produce different journalism.
When I show up somewhere — and I always show up! — I don’t simply appear as a woman in Web3, but rather as someone who will always be there for the truth and the good builders. Editorial teams that understand that distinction will naturally amplify the right voices, and the teams that are trying to tick boxes will keep producing content that feels exactly like what it is.
Iliza Schlesinger recently confirmed something that’s critical to remember: that women are natural community builders and nurturers. That’s not a weakness, but a brute strength, actually. It is always going to go further than the bro culture, no matter how many times someone tries to flex their portfolio gains online. Women are more interested in doing instead of just flexing.
As the industry shifts more toward building authentically, what is currently a minor niche will become the norm. I mean, that’s what happened to crypto, right? This will be the same.
