CoinLaw is committed to ethical, independent, and responsible journalism across finance, regulation, and digital asset markets. While our Publishing Principles define standards for accuracy and verification, this Ethics Policy establishes the conduct and boundaries that guide editorial decision-making and professional behaviour.
This policy exists to ensure that CoinLaw’s reporting remains fair, transparent, and free from undue influence, while serving the public interest in complex and fast-moving financial environments.
Financial Disclosures and Trading Standards
Because CoinLaw covers volatile financial markets, strict safeguards are applied to prevent conflicts of interest.
- Disclosure of holdings: All editorial staff and contributors must disclose significant financial holdings in any digital asset, security, or company they cover. Disclosures appear in a dedicated author disclosure section where relevant.
- Prohibition on front-running: CoinLaw staff are prohibited from trading assets based on non-public information obtained during the reporting process. Contributors may not trade an asset they have written about within 48 hours of publication.
- Journalism over speculation: CoinLaw’s editorial focus is on research, analysis, and reporting, not short-term trading or speculative activity.
Gifts, Payments, and External Influence
CoinLaw maintains strict independence from external influence.
- No pay-for-play: CoinLaw does not accept payments, tokens, equity, or other incentives in exchange for coverage, reviews, rankings, or inclusion in editorial content. Sponsored or partner content is clearly labelled and handled separately from editorial operations.
- Gifts and hospitality: Editorial staff may not accept gifts, cash, or hospitality of significant value from sources or companies they cover. Nominal items may be accepted where appropriate, but anything of material value must be declined or returned.
- Press travel and events: If travel or accommodation is provided by a third party for reporting purposes, this is disclosed in the resulting coverage. Wherever possible, CoinLaw funds its own reporting expenses.
Use of Editorial Support Tools and AI
CoinLaw uses modern editorial tools like AI to support research, analysis, and production workflows.
- Human editorial responsibility: All articles are conceived, reviewed, edited, and approved by human editors. Editorial judgment, accountability, and final responsibility rest with CoinLaw’s editorial team.
- Responsible use of tools: Support tools may assist with tasks such as drafting, data processing, summarisation, or technical validation. All output is subject to human verification to ensure accuracy, context, and reliability.
- Copyright and originality: CoinLaw respects intellectual property rights. Editorial tools are not used to replicate the style of specific creators or to bypass copyright protections.
Sourcing and Attribution Integrity
CoinLaw treats sources and subjects with fairness and respect.
- Source protection: Anonymity is granted only when necessary to prevent harm and when information is clearly in the public interest. Anonymity is not used to shield sources from accountability.
- Right of reply: If a story includes criticism of a person or company, we make a reasonable effort to contact them and provide an opportunity to comment before publication.
- Anti-plagiarism standards: CoinLaw credits original reporting and links to primary sources. We do not misrepresent others’ work as our own.
Diversity and Inclusion in Reporting
Crypto regulation is being written across more than a hundred jurisdictions, by regulators with different mandates and different legal traditions. Coverage that defaults to a small US-and-UK rotation misses most of what is actually happening.
- Source range: we actively widen the source pool past the usual handful of US lawyers and exchange spokespeople. Asia-Pacific, Latin American, and African voices on regulation, market structure, and on-chain behaviour appear in our analysis when they are the right experts for the topic
- Language and framing: coverage avoids stereotyped framing of jurisdictions, communities, and asset classes. Where a community is the subject of an enforcement action, we describe the action, not the community
Civil Discourse and Community Standards
CoinLaw encourages informed discussion while maintaining respectful environments.
- Moderation practices: Comments or community contributions may be moderated or removed if they include harassment, hate speech, doxing, spam, or abusive behaviour.
Accountability, Corrections, and Whistleblowing
CoinLaw applies accountability internally and publicly.
- Internal reporting: Staff and freelancers may report ethical concerns internally without fear of retaliation.
- Public corrections: Factual errors are corrected promptly and transparently. Corrections are based on verified facts, not external pressure.
Correction handling and reader feedback are governed by CoinLaw’s Actionable Feedback Policy and Corrections Policy.
This ethics policy reflects CoinLaw’s commitment to integrity, independence, and responsible journalism. By applying consistent ethical standards across reporting, analysis, and editorial conduct, we aim to provide information readers can trust in complex financial and regulatory environments.
