Mary Pedler has spent the past several years building a boutique blockchain PR firm into an international communications agency. Founded in 2021 as CryptoColumnist, the company later became INPUT Communications, working with brands across fintech, blockchain and AI, including Tether, Bitget, Mansa and Brickken. In 2024, Pedler served as a jury member for the BeInCrypto Excellence Awards.
Her agency has developed alongside a crypto sector facing greater scrutiny from institutions, regulators and established businesses. Companies seeking partnerships and capital now face deeper checks on governance, legal certainty and commercial performance alongside technology and growth.
BeInCrypto spoke with Pedler about leadership, communications, women in senior roles, and institutional participation in digital assets.
Founders Who (Really) Understand Their Company
Pedler believes durable leadership begins with an accurate view of the business.
“The founders who build lasting companies have an unglamorous relationship with their own story. They can explain what the company does and who pays for it in plain commercial terms, with a consistent story for each audience and little reliance on generic industry phrases.”
Strong markets can make ambitious messaging easier to sustain. Difficult periods reveal how well a founder understands the company.
“Anybody sounds compelling during a strong quarter. The test comes when funding becomes scarce and a founder has to explain the same company to a bank, a regulator and a skeptical reporter. If the story changes completely in each room, the foundation was weak from the beginning.”
Pedler also sees restraint as an important leadership quality. Crypto founders often face pressure to remain visible and compete for attention.
“Founders need to be comfortable with being a little boring. The pressure to stay visible can make people confuse attention with progress. I’ve seen strong products fall behind quieter competitors whose teams spent more time building.”
Resilience becomes especially important during weak markets and funding pressure. Pedler sees durable leaders as people who remain focused, adapt when needed and keep the company aligned around its commercial goals.
Uncertainty Rewards Precision
Public scrutiny rises during security incidents, delayed launches and periods of market or regulatory uncertainty. Pedler sees many communications failures beginning when founders blur confirmed information with expectations.
“Separating what you know from what you hope is where this begins. Most credibility damage comes from founders who blur the two during a difficult week. They give a timeline outside their control or describe a partnership still under discussion. Six weeks later, the expected result has failed to arrive, and the next statement carries less force even when it is accurate.”
Pedler favors regular updates built around confirmed information and realistic timing.
“Say what you can deliver, explain what remains unresolved and give the next update when you said you would.”
The way a company communicates also depends on who is listening, with institutional buyers typically expecting more evidence and precision, while policymakers and journalists place emphasis on accuracy, restraint and relevance beyond the company itself.
“One message written for retail users, institutional counterparties, journalists and policymakers lands with very little force anywhere,” Pedler said.
Companies can adapt presentation to each audience while keeping the underlying facts consistent.
The Importance of an Honest Message
Pedler sees many early-stage companies relying on inherited crypto terminology instead of describing the business they have built.
“‘Banking the unbanked’ is one obvious example. Teams still use it even when their actual work involves settlement systems, treasury products or compliance technology.”
More precise descriptions can improve trust and commercial communication.
“Your message gets stronger the moment it becomes more honest. You can feel the difference between a team leaning on industry mythology and one with a strong understanding of its own role.”
Sources of trust have also changed as digital asset companies seek relationships with regulated businesses. Attention once helped companies establish recognition. Institutional counterparties place greater emphasis on governance, legal certainty and verifiable partnerships.
“Attention once functioned as proof. Its value weakens considerably once your audience includes institutions and regulators, who read governance, legal clarity and named partnerships instead.”
Pedler also cautions founders against expecting communications to compensate for weaknesses in product or sales.
“Owned channels get over-weighted because being known inside your own echo chamber differs from being heard by the people you need to influence. Public relations works best alongside strong sales and product-market fit.”
Women Need Authority Alongside Representation
Pedler sees crypto creating more leadership opportunities for women than many conservative areas of finance, helped by younger founders and flatter hierarchies.
“My read is crypto keeps improving year on year, and faster than the more conservative corners of finance. Founders here are younger, hierarchies shallower, and there is less institutional memory enforcing who belongs in each room.”
Access to capital remains one of the strongest barriers. Fundraising affects company growth, executive opportunities and the eventual creation of board seats. Professional networks reinforce the same dynamic because partnerships and deals often begin in informal settings around industry events.
“Deals get shaped at side events and conference bars instead of through formal processes. Visibility loops finish the job because panels invite people who have already been on panels.”
Inside companies, Pedler believes representation gains value when women receive control over budgets, hiring and revenue.
“Moving the discussion to budgets and profit-and-loss responsibility is where this becomes real, because authority is measured by what a person controls. Real authority comes with control over budgets, hiring and revenue.”
She also distinguishes mentorship from sponsorship.
“Mentorship offers advice. Sponsorship means a senior person spends their own credibility putting a name forward, and the second one changes careers.”
Pedler points to INPUT’s own team, where women represent a large majority of employees and several hold responsibility for client P&L.
“The team grew this way organically. We kept handing responsibility to whoever was ready.”
A New Standard for Communications
Greater institutional involvement has changed the way crypto companies manage their public statements over time.
“Disclosure discipline comes first. Regulated counterparties run diligence with the assumption everything a company has ever published is on the record. Marketing claims from three years ago, or announcements left unfinished, can return during due diligence.”
Pedler sees close coordination between legal and communications teams as essential before institutional discussions reach an advanced stage.
Risk communication also gains importance. Banks and asset managers may examine custody arrangements, counterparty exposure and regulatory scenarios before entering a partnership.
“If a company struggles to explain its own risks, it can come across as inexperienced or evasive.”
Governance receives similar scrutiny. Counterparties want to identify senior executives, understand their responsibilities and review company policies with minimal ambiguity.
“The person who attracts attention through bold, informal social media posts may be a poor choice to represent the company in meetings with institutions.”
Institutional Adoption Still Depends on Rules and Demand
US digital asset policy advanced in 2025. The GENIUS Act became law on July 18, creating a federal framework for payment stablecoins. The House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act the previous day, while Senate lawmakers continued work on market-structure legislation.
Pedler sees regulatory certainty and commercial demand solving different parts of the institutional adoption process.
“Clear rules remove one of the main barriers. Inside a regulated institution, legal or compliance teams can stop a project before anyone considers whether it makes commercial sense.”
Once compliance concerns are addressed, commercial considerations take over.
“The business side will ask whether clients want the product, what margins it can generate and how much it will cost to operate.”
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products offer one example of this relationship. US approval opened access through established securities venues, while investor demand determined the amount of capital entering the products.
“Clear regulation gets a product considered. Demand and product quality determine whether it gets adopted.”
Pedler expects institutional participation to depend on regulatory confidence alongside a strong commercial case.
“Institutions need regulatory confidence and a compelling business reason to participate.”
Bitrue