Wachsman review: what ten years, a $25.4M fee year and zero client reviews add up to

Wachsman is the oldest name in crypto public relations that is still trading under its founder. It opened in New York in December 2015, has run the press room for TOKEN2049 since the first edition in 2018 and was reappointed PR agency of record for Money20/20 Europe and USA in May 2026, and the last fee figure PRovoke Media printed for it was $25.4 million for 2022, up 82% on the year before. It also has the thinnest client-review record of any agency in this series: zero reviews on Clutch, no Trustpilot profile, no published prices, no client terms, and two “case studies” on its own site that are Latin filler text. Since April 2026 its founder has had a second job as President of an OTC-listed company with no revenue and no employees that lists Wachsman LLC among its paid service providers. Our score is 7/10.

We read wachsman.com on 27 October 2026: the homepage, about, expertise, team, locations, careers and contact pages, the privacy policy, the five sector pages for crypto, Web3, fintech, financial and tech PR, all 37 news posts back to 2018, and the client, team, job and case-study entries the site’s own content system publishes. We also read Clutch, Trustpilot, the UK Companies House record for Wachsman UK Limited, the SEC filings of Hawkeye Digital, Inc., PRovoke Media’s 2023 fast-movers table, the Inc. 5000 profile and the domain registry. Every figure below comes from one of those.

Who is behind Wachsman

David Wachsman founded the firm in New York in December 2015, according to its own Inc. 5000 page, “to support the entrepreneurs, founders, and risk-takers defying the odds” in bitcoin and blockchain. The clearest statement of what the business is comes from an unexpected place: the annual report of Hawkeye Digital, Inc., filed with the SEC on 11 September 2026, which says Mr. Wachsman, 43, “has also served as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wachsman LLC since September 2015” and that Wachsman LLC “provides strategic advisory, communications, events management, production and corporate development services globally” with a focus on “public relations and strategic consulting related to finance, technology and digital assets”.

The European side is a separate structure. The privacy policy names Wachsman PR Limited at the Digital Exchange on Crane Street, Dublin 8. Companies House records Wachsman UK Limited, incorporated on 14 February 2022 with David Wachsman as its only director, whose person with significant control is Wachsman Limited, an Irish company registered as 601111 at Castle Street, Dublin 2, holding 75% or more of the shares and the right to appoint directors. Its last accounts run to 31 December 2024, filed in December 2025; the confirmation statement due by 27 February 2026 had not been filed when we checked. Singapore opened in September 2018 with a promise of “20 new positions”, London in April 2022, Geneva in December 2022. The footer lists eight offices with phone numbers, Los Angeles to Singapore; a February 2025 release stretched that to “presences” in eleven places including the UAE and South Korea.

The management layer has been rebuilt twice in a year. In September 2025 Liam Murphy, with the firm since 2017, became Global President; Alex Corp took EMEA and Alex Sheehan global strategy. In August 2026 four long-serving directors, Maud Honner, Louise Creedon, Rebecca Maher and Emily Kielthy, were made Executive Directors for product, brand, commercial and client services, with “a combined 30-plus years of experience at the firm”. Mr. Murphy, interviewed on the firm’s own blog in March 2026, said the agency “previously operated as three separate regional entities” and is being unified. The site’s team section lists 62 people, most of them added in September 2024 when the site was rebuilt; Clutch files it under 50 to 249 employees.

What Wachsman sells

Seven practice areas: strategic communications, CEO advisory, investor relations, crisis and issues management, events and speaking engagements, transaction advisory communications, and policy advisory and regulatory affairs. The five sector landing pages (crypto, Web3, fintech, financial, tech) carry the same copy under different headings and list the same six deliverables: brand-building strategy, go-to-market and scaling, fundraising, reputation management, “leadership spotlight” and “comms analytics”. There is no paid-media, token-launch, KOL or community product anywhere on the site, which separates it from every agency we have reviewed except Melrose PR. Two bolt-ons appear in the news feed: a “specialized service for Digital Asset Treasuries and other public companies” announced in September 2025, and a partnership from August 2025 with DiRoma Eck & Co., a Washington firm led by two former Deputy Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, for regulatory work.

Events are the visible product. The TOKEN2049 release of 31 August 2026 describes “strategic communications counsel and global media relations” for the Singapore event across eight editions; the Money20/20 release of May 2026 says the team “invited and secured attendance from over 300 international journalists” for Amsterdam and will be “running the press room engine for the entirety of the show” there and in Las Vegas. That is what a Wachsman engagement looks like at the top end: a press office, not a placements package.

Pricing in 2026

There is none on the site. No retainer band, no package, no hourly rate, no “from”. The contact form is the only place a number appears: the required field “What is your monthly budget for these services?” starts at “$10,000 – $20,000” and ends at “$40,000 +”, with “TBD / Prefer not to say” as the escape. Read plainly, the agency expects a monthly retainer and expects it to begin at five figures, which is the same signal Outset PR prints openly ($8,000 to $16,000 a month) and Solus Agency leaves to Clutch ($50,000 minimum). Clutch lists Wachsman’s minimum project size and hourly rate as “Undisclosed”, and because nobody has reviewed it there, the “most common project size” field that gives away the real range at other agencies is empty.

One public number helps calibrate. PRovoke Media’s 2023 ranking of fast-moving agencies lists Wachsman with $25.4 million of fee income for 2022, growth of 82% in constant currency, 15th in the world. Divide that by the sixty-odd people the firm describes in Europe plus the US and Asian teams and it is a mid-sized international agency at mainstream PR rates, not a crypto shop. No fee figure for 2023, 2024 or 2025 appears in any public ranking we found; the firm’s own posts after 2023 report awards and appointments, not revenue.

Clients and case studies, checked

The client grid on the homepage draws from a list of 43 logos: Aptos, BitMEX, CertiK, Chainlink, CoinDesk, Cosmos, Bullish, Crypto.com, DBS, DeLorean, Ethena, Fox Entertainment, Hedera, Mantle, Maple Finance, Ondo Finance, Render Network, Standard Chartered, Stellar, Ripple, Synthetix, Tether, Western Alliance Bank, World Liberty Financial, Aave, Parity, WorldRemit, Visa, TOKEN2049, Solana, Singapore Fintech Festival, Protocol Labs, Money20/20, Marathon, Maker, Kraken, Fireblocks, Chiliz, Chainalysis, Cardano, Bluesky, Avalanche and XBTO; the sector pages add Hublot and Improbable. The entries were created in August and September 2024, with one batch in April 2025, so the list is a history of the firm, not a current roster, and no logo carries a date, a scope or a result.

What can be confirmed from outside: TOKEN2049’s co-founder Alex Fiskum is quoted by name in the 31 August 2026 release (“Wachsman has been part of the TOKEN2049 journey from the very beginning”), and the Money20/20 reappointment names Plasma, AMINA, Mercuryo, Scrypt, BVNK and Sumsub as “long-term strategic clients” on the show floor. The August 2026 executive release adds Animoca Brands, Baillie Gifford, OKX and Zodia Custody to the names its directors have worked on. The one client relationship written into a regulatory filing is Hawkeye Digital’s: its 8-K of 5 June 2026 says the company is “ramping up its operations with the retention of various top-level service providers, including Wachsman LLC”, and its August 2026 press release lists hawkeye@wachsman.com as media contact. More on why that one matters below.

The case studies are another story. The site’s content system holds exactly two, “Optimising operations” and “Transforming user experiences”, both dated 9 August 2024, both live at public URLs under /news/case_study/, and both consisting of Latin filler (“Felis lobortis proin integer eros faucibus cubilia…”) followed by boilerplate from the expertise page. Five “Insight 1” to “Insight 5” entries from 16 August 2024 and three “Account Manager” job posts from the same week are the same kind of leftover from the 2024 rebuild. For a firm that sells “comms analytics” and has run the world’s largest crypto conference’s press office for eight years, the absence of a single written case study, and the presence of placeholders in their slot more than two years later, is the most surprising thing we found.

Third-party reviews and rankings, and what they mean

Clutch: “Not yet reviewed”, founded 2015, New York, 50 to 249 employees, service mix 70% public relations, 10% event management, 10% social media, 5% each event marketing and marketing strategy, “No Clients have been added yet”. Trustpilot: no profile at all. In this series only Serotonin, reviewed next, matches that: no Clutch listing and no Trustpilot profile either. NinjaPromo has 97 Clutch reviews, RGray 23, Lunar Strategy 23, Coinbound 14; even MarketAcross, which owns a wire and sells to the same institutional tier, has nine. Wachsman has none, and its contact page does not ask for any.

What exists instead is a shelf of rankings and awards, all of which we checked at the source where the source was readable: PRovoke Media’s 2023 fast movers (15th, $25.4 million, +82%; the firm’s own post adds “5th in the USA”), Inc. 5000 No. 405 in 2020 and No. 2,770 in 2023, the Financial Times Americas’ 500 fastest-growing list at No. 140 in 2021, PRWeek Global Awards Best Agency in Europe in 2023 and “highly commended” in the same category in 2025, PR Awards Asia Specialist Consultancy of the Year 2022. These measure growth and peer esteem, which is real information about a business, and nothing about what a client gets for a retainer. The one employee-review site with an entry has a single review, too thin to weigh.

The terms

Wachsman publishes no terms of service, no client agreement, no refund or cancellation language and no governing-law clause. The only legal document on the site is the combined cookie and privacy policy, written to GDPR with the usual rights of access and erasure and a pointer to “the Data Protection Authority”, naming Wachsman PR Limited as the contact. Everything commercial is therefore in a proposal you will receive after the budget field is filled in, and which entity signs it, the Irish company, the UK company or the US LLC, is not something the site tells you in advance. That is normal for an agency of this kind and worse than the wires: Chainwire at least prints the clause that says there are no refunds.

The Hawkeye Digital connection

Since the 31 August 2026 TOKEN2049 release, Wachsman’s press releases sign their founder as “David Wachsman, Founder & CEO of Wachsman and President of Hawkeye Digital Inc. (OTC:HWKE)”. Hawkeye Digital is the company formerly called Hawkeye Systems, a Nevada corporation that the SEC still files under “Photographic Equipment & Supplies”. Its annual report for the year to 30 June 2026 says the board appointed Mr. Wachsman President and principal executive officer on 1 April 2026, with the chief executive position “currently vacant”; that an investor vehicle, Hawkeye Holdco, of which he is a member alongside chairman Martin Sumichrast, owns about 91% of the stock after a June 2026 debt conversion; that the company had “no full-time employees” and “generated no operating revenue during fiscal year 2026”, with a net loss of $572,893 and an accumulated deficit of $13.8 million; and that it has moved to Miami Beach to become “a private equity and merchant banking platform focused on digital assets”.

Two passages matter to a Wachsman client. The first is a risk factor: “Our executive officers and directors devote only a portion of their time to us and hold positions at other enterprises, including… Wachsman LLC, of which our President is Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Those enterprises operate in advisory, communications, and corporate development businesses that overlap with the strategy we have announced. We have not adopted a written policy allocating corporate opportunities among us and these affiliates.” The second is the June 2026 press release that lists Wachsman LLC among the service providers Hawkeye has “retained”, which makes the agency a paid supplier to a public company run by its own founder. None of this is hidden; it is all in the filings, and the agency puts the title in its own releases. But a crypto PR firm whose founder now also runs a listed merchant-banking shell that intends “to acquire companies in the digital asset space” is a firm whose CEO has a second set of interests in the industry it represents, and the filing says so in its own words. Ask, before signing, who at the agency owns your account if your competitor becomes a Hawkeye target.

Wachsman against the desks and agencies we already track

Wachsman does not sell what most of this category sells. There is no wire, no article package and no placement count; the product is senior counsel, a press office and event media relations, billed monthly. The nearest comparisons in our series are the earned-media retainers in our crypto PR agencies comparison: Outset PR prints $8,000 to $16,000 a month with guaranteed feature counts, MarketAcross runs a “results-based retainer” and owns Chainwire, and Melrose PR, in business since 2012, is the only other agency here with no paid-media product at all. The wires themselves, compared in our PR distribution comparison, start at $1,399 for Chainwire’s smallest package; a Wachsman month starts, by its own form, at seven times that.

Agency	Published price	Clutch	Trustpilot	Legal entity findable	Our score
Wachsman	None (form: $10,000+ a month)	Not yet reviewed	No profile	Yes, 4 companies in 3 countries	7/10
Coinbound	PR FAQ “$10,000 and $20,000”	5.0 (14)	3.2 (3)	Yes	7/10
MarketAcross	None (results-based retainer)	5.0 (9)	No profile	Yes	7/10
Solus Agency	None (Clutch min $50,000)	5.0 (22)	No profile	Unnamed Ukrainian entity	6.5/10
Chainwire	$1,399 to $10,799 per release	n/a	No reviews	Yes	6.5/10
Outset PR	$8,000 to $16,000 a month	5.0 (4)	No profile	Yes	6/10
Melrose PR	None	Not yet reviewed	No profile	Yes	6/10

If the brief is a token launch, a KOL campaign or a fixed number of articles, Wachsman is the wrong door and the agencies in our Web3 marketing agencies ranking are the right one. If the brief is a listing, an acquisition, a regulator or a conference where you need the press room on your side, Wachsman is one of perhaps three crypto-native firms that has done it at scale for a decade, and the only one of the three whose scale is in a public ranking.

Verdict

Our score is 7/10, level with Coinbound and MarketAcross and above Chainwire’s 6.5, for opposite reasons to RGray’s 6.5. Wachsman earns the top of the range on the record: a decade in business, four registered companies with a named director, a $25.4 million fee year in an independent table, two conference press offices renewed in 2026 with the client’s co-founder on the record, and a management bench that has been promoted from inside rather than hired from a roundup. It loses points on everything a buyer can check before the first call: no price beyond a form field, no terms, no case study that is not filler, zero client reviews on either platform, a UK filing that is overdue, and a founder whose other company tells the SEC its business overlaps with the agency’s and that no policy divides the two. A $10,000-a-month floor buys senior people with real relationships; what it does not buy, yet, is a single public account of what those people delivered for anyone.

Wachsman FAQ

How much does Wachsman cost?

Wachsman publishes no prices. Its contact form asks for a monthly budget in bands of $10,000–$20,000, $21,000–$30,000, $31,000–$40,000 and $40,000+, which is the only figure on the site. Clutch lists the minimum project size and hourly rate as undisclosed. Expect a monthly retainer quoted by proposal.

Who owns Wachsman?

Founder David Wachsman, through Wachsman LLC in the United States (founded September 2015 according to an SEC filing) and an Irish structure: Wachsman Limited, registration 601111, controls Wachsman UK Limited, and Wachsman PR Limited in Dublin 8 is named in the privacy policy. Hawkeye Digital, the listed company where he is President, does not own the agency; it retains it as a supplier.

Which clients can be confirmed?

TOKEN2049 (agency of record since 2018, co-founder quoted in August 2026), Money20/20 Europe and USA (reappointed May 2026), and Hawkeye Digital, whose SEC filing lists Wachsman LLC as a retained service provider. The 43 logos on the site, from Ripple and Visa to Tether and Solana, carry no dates, scopes or results.

Does Wachsman have Clutch or Trustpilot reviews?

No. On 27 October 2026 the Clutch profile read “Not yet reviewed” with no clients added, and Trustpilot had no profile for wachsman.com. The agency’s third-party record is rankings and awards: PRovoke Media, Inc. 5000, the Financial Times and PRWeek.

What is Wachsman’s link to Hawkeye Digital?

Since 1 April 2026 David Wachsman has been President and principal executive officer of Hawkeye Digital, Inc. (OTC: HWKE), formerly Hawkeye Systems, a Miami Beach company with no revenue and no employees that intends to buy digital-asset businesses. Its 10-K says his agency’s business “overlap[s]” with Hawkeye’s strategy and that no written policy allocates opportunities between them. Hawkeye lists Wachsman LLC as a retained service provider.

Is Wachsman a good fit for a crypto ad campaign?

No. It sells counsel, press offices and event media relations, not placements, paid media or KOLs. For paid reach, the networks in our crypto ad networks ranking start at $100; for a release, the wires in our PR distribution comparison start at $1,399. Wachsman is for the moments those tools cannot handle: a listing, a regulator, a crisis or a conference.

Sources

The figures above come from these pages, published by the companies themselves unless noted. "Checked" is the date we last read each page.

1. Wachsman homepage (eight offices in the footer, client grid, info@wachsman.com) checked 27 Oct 2026
2. About page ("In 2015, Wachsman was founded", team, locations) checked 27 Oct 2026
3. Expertise page (seven practice areas, company stages) checked 27 Oct 2026
4. Crypto PR page (six deliverables, client logos; same copy on the Web3, fintech, financial and tech pages) checked 27 Oct 2026
5. Contact form ("What is your monthly budget for these services?" $10,000–$20,000 to $40,000+) checked 27 Oct 2026
6. Privacy and cookie policy (Wachsman PR Limited, Digital Exchange, Dublin 8; the only legal page) checked 27 Oct 2026
7. Team page (62 entries) checked 27 Oct 2026
8. Case study page dated 9 August 2024 (Latin filler text) checked 27 Oct 2026
9. TOKEN2049 agency-of-record release, 31 August 2026 (Alex Fiskum quote; "President of Hawkeye Digital Inc. (OTC:HWKE)") checked 27 Oct 2026
10. Money20/20 reappointment, 26 May 2026 (300 journalists, named clients) checked 27 Oct 2026
11. Four Executive Directors, 19 August 2026 (named clients) checked 27 Oct 2026
12. Leadership promotions, 18 September 2025 ("60-person European business", DAT service) checked 27 Oct 2026
13. 10th-year release, 18 February 2025 (appointments, eleven presences) checked 27 Oct 2026
14. DiRoma Eck & Co. partnership, 7 August 2025 checked 27 Oct 2026
15. Inc. 5000 post (founded December 2015; No. 405 in 2020, No. 2,770 in 2023) checked 27 Oct 2026
16. PRovoke rankings post ("ended 2022 up 82%") checked 27 Oct 2026
17. PRWeek Global Awards 2025 (highly commended, Best Agency – Europe outside UK) checked 27 Oct 2026
18. Singapore office release, 21 September 2018 ("20 new positions") checked 27 Oct 2026
19. PRovoke Media 2023 fast movers (15th, 82.0%, fee income 2022 $25,400,000) checked 27 Oct 2026
20. Inc. 5000 profile (No. 2,770; No. 405) checked 27 Oct 2026
21. Clutch profile ("Not yet reviewed", undisclosed minimum and rate, 50–249 employees, founded 2015, no clients added) checked 27 Oct 2026
22. Trustpilot (no profile) checked 27 Oct 2026
23. Companies House: Wachsman UK Limited (incorporated 14 February 2022, active, confirmation statement overdue, accounts to 31 December 2024) checked 27 Oct 2026
24. Companies House PSC: Wachsman Limited, Ireland, registration 601111, 75%+ of shares checked 27 Oct 2026
25. Companies House officers: David Wachsman, director since 14 February 2022 checked 27 Oct 2026
26. Hawkeye Digital, Inc. 10-K for the year to 30 June 2026 (President since 1 April 2026; Wachsman LLC since September 2015; overlap risk factor; no revenue, no employees, net loss $572,893; HH ~91%) checked 27 Oct 2026
27. Hawkeye Systems 8-K exhibit 99.1, 5 June 2026 ($5M equity; "retention of… Wachsman LLC"; Hawkeye Holdco ~90%) checked 27 Oct 2026
28. Hawkeye Digital 8-K exhibit 99.1, 24 August 2026 (rename, Miami Beach, hawkeye@wachsman.com media contact) checked 27 Oct 2026
29. SEC submissions record (former name Hawkeye Systems, Inc. to 23 July 2026; Nevada; SIC 3861) checked 27 Oct 2026
30. Domain registry (registered 13 March 1997, Squarespace Domains) checked 27 Oct 2026

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