All researchThe Institutional
Novora ResearchNIR Score benchmarkJune 2026
The Institutional
Readiness Gap
Why crypto companies and protocols still communicate like startups.
100
Protocols scored
49/100
Median IR score
3
Institutional-grade
62
No real IR layer
Crypto is a multi-trillion-dollar asset class, held by institutions, treasuries, and millions of investors. Its investor communications have not kept pace.
We scored the investor relations infrastructure of the 100 largest companies and protocols onchain across five pillars. The median score is 49 out of 100. Three reach institutional grade. The largest assets in crypto are underwritten with less disclosure than a Series A startup provides its investors.
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Novora Research, NIR Score benchmark, June 2026
The Institutional
Readiness Gap
Readiness Gap
Why crypto companies and protocols still communicate like startups.
AuthorNovora Research
DatasetThe 100 largest companies and protocols onchain, scored on the Novora IR Score
MethodFive pillars, 100 points, benchmarked against the scored universe
The thesis
100 protocols. One conclusion.
Crypto is now a liquid, multi-trillion-dollar asset class held by institutions, treasuries, and millions of investors. Its investor communications have not kept pace. Novora scored the investor relations infrastructure of the 100 largest companies and protocols onchain across five pillars. The median score is 49 out of 100. Three reach institutional grade. The market matured. The reporting did not.
Protocols scored
100
The largest companies and protocols onchain
Median IR Score
49/100
Squarely in the Early-Stage IR band
Institutional-grade
3
scoring 85 or above
Jito, Meteora, Raydium
No real IR layer
62
scoring under 55
Of the 100 largest assets
The largest assets in crypto are underwritten with less disclosure than a Series A startup provides its investors.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 02
How we score
The Novora IR Score.
A 100-point framework that measures whether a protocol gives investors the infrastructure to do their jobs. Five equally weighted pillars, 20 points each, scored against a benchmarked universe. The score measures the quality of investor communication, not the quality of the protocol.
The five pillars
| Pillar | What it measures |
|---|---|
| 1. Transparency and reporting | Recurring disclosure, financials, filings |
| 2. Tokenholder communication | Calls, channels, reporting cadence |
| 3. Data accessibility | Dashboards and institutional data pages |
| 4. Narrative and positioning | Investment thesis and materials |
| 5. Value accrual and tokenomics | Supply, treasury, value accrual clarity |
Scoring tiers
| Score | Tier |
|---|---|
| 85–100 | Institutional-grade IR |
| 70–84 | Strong IR foundation |
| 55–69 | Developing IR |
| 35–54 | Early-stage IR |
| 0–34 | No IR infrastructure |
Market data: CoinGecko circulating market cap and Artemis revenue, as of June 11, 2026. Multiples reference market cap, not FDV. Full methodology and live leaderboard at novora.co/ir.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 03
Tier distribution
Most protocols communicate like startups.
Across the 100 largest assets, 62 score below the Developing threshold and 16 have no investor relations infrastructure at all. Fourteen reach a Strong foundation or better. The distribution is not a long tail of small projects. These are the most valuable companies and protocols onchain.
Protocols by IR tier, n = 100
Institutional
3
Strong
11
Developing
24
Early-stage
46
No IR
16
Median score 49 / 100. Mean 50 / 100. The single most common tier is Early-Stage IR, where reporting is ad hoc and no structured cadence exists.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 04
IR quality by sector
The app layer reports. The base layer doesn’t.
Average IR Score by sector
DeFi
59.1
L2
52.8
Infra
51.4
L1
46.7
DePIN
42.9
AI
33.0
Memecoin
22.6
The core insight
DeFi leads because revenue, dashboards, and tokenholder economics are visible onchain and straightforward to report.
L1s and DePIN networks often have strong narratives but weak investor-facing reporting. The story is there. The disclosure that lets an allocator underwrite it is not.
Sector leaders: Jito and Meteora in DeFi (95), Pyth in infra (81), Near among L1s (74), Render in DePIN (63).
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 05
The mega-cap gap
Size is not seriousness.
Market capitalization and IR quality are uncorrelated. Several of the largest assets onchain carry the weakest investor communications in the dataset.
IR Score vs market cap, 100 assets. White: large cap, low IR. Blue: IR leaders.
Market cap: CoinGecko circulating market cap, as of June 11, 2026 (not FDV). IR scores: Novora NIR benchmark.
XRP, Ethereum, and Tron are worth a combined ~$300B and score 38, 41, and 44. The capital is institutional. The communication is not.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 06
What protocols are missing
The same six gaps, everywhere.
Across the scored universe, low IR scores trace back to the same recurring failures. None requires becoming a public company. Each is a solvable communications problem.
No tokenholder update cadence
Pillar 1–2
No regular, structured reporting investors can rely on.
Unclear revenue and fee reporting
Pillar 1
Fundamentals exist onchain but are never reported plainly.
Scattered governance communications
Pillar 2
Decisions spread across forums, chats, and threads.
Weak institutional data pages
Pillar 3
Thin or absent coverage on the platforms allocators use.
No investor-facing KPI dashboard
Pillar 3
No first-party place to verify the numbers that matter.
Unclear token value accrual
Pillar 5
No plain account of how protocol success reaches the token.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 07
The opportunity
A communications layer for liquid markets.
Protocols do not need to become public companies. They do not need filings, auditors, or quarterly earnings calls by regulation.
They need a tokenholder communications layer appropriate for liquid markets: a regular reporting cadence, clear fundamentals, a first-party data surface, and a plain account of how value reaches the token.
It is among the lowest-cost levers a protocol controls. Strong investor relations reduces the friction an allocator faces in underwriting a position, and supports a more accurate market understanding of the asset.
What it changes
Structured investor communication lowers the information barrier between a protocol and the institutions evaluating it. It improves allocator confidence and the quality of institutional engagement. It does not, on its own, re-rate a token. It removes a reason allocators pass.
The work is finite to stand up and low-cost to maintain. The 62 protocols below the Developing line are not failing at IR. Most have never started.
First movers in each sector set the disclosure standard their peers are then measured against.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 08
Case studies, the institutional-grade cohort
What good IR actually looks like.
Meteora
95/100
DeFi, Solana
A dedicated IR hub at ir.meteora.ag with monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, treasury cashflow statements, a disclosed $10M MET buyback, and a completed Blockworks transparency filing.
The full stack, and the benchmark every other score is measured against.
Jito
95/100
DeFi, Solana
Inaugural Blockworks IR partner. Tokenholder calls with published slides and recordings, monthly roundups, and JIP-24 directing 100% of revenue to a JTO buyback.
Coverage across Token Terminal, Dune, Artemis, and DefiLlama, alongside a transparency filing.
Raydium
88/100
DeFi, Solana
A Blockworks IR portal with quarterly tokenholder reports and segmented revenue, an active RAY buyback funded by 2025 revenue, and coverage on Artemis, Token Terminal, Dune, and DefiLlama.
A transparency filing in progress completes the institutional-grade three.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 09
Case study, MetaDAO
Full-stack IR, from scratch.
IR Score
83
Strong foundation
Top 5 of the benchmark
Transparency filing
40/40
Blockworks TTF, audited
Reporting
Daily
Live transparency hub
Market cap
~$62M
Score is independent of size
What it demonstrates
MetaDAO scores in the top five of the 100 largest assets at roughly $62M market cap, ahead of protocols a hundred times its size. A daily-updated transparency hub at metadao.fi/transparency, a Q1 2026 tokenholder report with segmented revenue and treasury detail, and a clean 40/40 transparency filing put the full IR stack in place.
IR quality is a function of effort and discipline, not balance sheet. The smallest companies onchain can out-communicate the largest.
The read
Size is not a prerequisite for institutional-grade communication, and it is not an excuse for the absence of it.
Disclosure: Novora is engaged with MetaDAO as its capital markets and investor relations partner.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 10
Case study, Pyth Network
Strong, without a hub.
Pyth scores 81 and ranks among the top infrastructure protocols without a dedicated IR portal. It earns the score through disclosure discipline and depth of third-party coverage.
What it does well
Monthly PYTH Purchases Reports on the DAO forum disclose treasury position and buyback execution on a fixed cadence.
A clear value-accrual mechanism: a structured buyback funding a third of treasury per month, plus a real revenue line from Pyth Pro.
Deep institutional data coverage: present across Artemis, Token Terminal, Dune, DefiLlama, and Blockworks Research.
Where the points are left
No dedicated IR hub, no first-party investor channel, and no transparency framework filing. The gap between 81 and institutional grade is infrastructure, not effort.
A protocol can reach a Strong foundation on cadence and coverage alone. Closing the gap to institutional grade is a build, and a fast one.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 11
Case study, Helium
Data-rich, IR-poor.
Helium scores 60, among the strongest in DePIN, and illustrates the sector pattern precisely. The onchain data is well covered. The first-party investor layer is missing.
The strength
Helium is well represented on the institutional data platforms: Token Terminal, DefiLlama, Dune, and Messari all carry its fundamentals, and Blockworks provides research coverage. An allocator can find the numbers.
The gap
There is no first-party IR hub, no dedicated investor channel, and no transparency filing. Value-accrual communication is thin. The network has a strong narrative and real onchain data, but no investor-facing reporting layer to tie them together.
The DePIN pattern
DePIN averages 42.9, the second-lowest of any sector. The cause is consistent: compelling narrative, real onchain data, and no reporting layer that turns either into something an institution can underwrite.
The data is the hard part, and it already exists. The communication layer is the easy part, and it is the part that is missing.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 12
Work with Novora
We build the IR layer.
Novora builds institutional-grade investor relations for crypto companies and protocols: the diagnostic that produced this report, the infrastructure that closes the gaps it surfaces, and the preparation to engage institutional capital.
The engagement
Diagnose. The full five-pillar NIR assessment behind your score, with the specific gaps that cap it and the order to close them.
Build allocator-grade IR. Reporting cadence, tokenholder reports, a first-party data surface, and the KPI dashboard institutions expect.
Position. The investment thesis and disclosure an allocator needs to underwrite the asset.
Engage institutions. Preparation and materials for institutional investor conversations, matched to the right allocators.
Start here
Request the full diagnostic behind your score.
See where your protocol ranks on the live leaderboard, then get the pillar-by-pillar breakdown and the roadmap to close the gap.
connor@novora.co
novora.co/ir, novora.co
novora.co/ir, novora.co
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026Novora | 13
Request the full diagnostic behind your score.
Novora Research, The Institutional Readiness Gap, June 2026
Where does your protocol rank? See the score, then request the full five-pillar diagnostic and the roadmap to close the gap.
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