Why We’re Here
Blockworks is a media and information platform that delivers news and insights about crypto to millions of investors. Our editorial site, newsletters, podcasts, conferences, research, and data provide investors with the critical analysis and information they need to make smarter decisions about digital assets.
We’re accelerating crypto’s adoption by making its most innovative areas accessible.
Our Editorial website increases transparency, engages institutions and regulators, and provides a non-biased, non-tribal view of crypto.
What We Stand For
Your trust is our greatest asset. We are dedicated to earning that trust through ethical journalism, and through reporting on the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets without answering to anyone or anything but the objective truth.
From our inception until May of 2023, we were privately-owned by our two founders (Mike Ippolito and Jason Yanowitz) and had no ownership connections to cryptocurrency companies, exchanges, or any issuer of cryptocurrency.
In May of 2023 we secured a $12 million dollar investment led by 10T Holdings with participation from Framework Ventures and Santiago Santos.
Our newsroom is completely independent. Our co-founders, owners and investors do not have input or visibility into what we choose to cover, when we cover it, or how we report on any story.
Trust, Transparency, and Credibility
Blockworks has achieved a perfect score from NewsGuard, an independent tool that rates media properties against nine criteria for transparency and credibility.
Working With Us
If you wish to discuss stories, tips, or your perspectives with Blockworks, or if we reach out to discuss these things with you, you should know that there are some journalistic standards that remain consistent.
These include how and when we may identify you, and whether your communications with us are confidential or if they can be used in our reporting.
You should also know that all Blockworks reporters and editors will clearly identify themselves as such before any information is considered eligible for publication.
— Default: On The Record (everything is fair game)
Our conversations, email threads, direct messages with you… in fact all communications with Blockworks are by default On The Record.
This means that we may choose to report what you say in those communications, and we may choose to identify you.
Don’t worry – there are alternatives!
— Off The Record (we keep our communications with you confidential)
If you ask us in advance to keep our conversations confidential, we may agree to do so. When we make that agreement, we keep it.
Once we have agreed to be off the record, we are no longer allowed to use this information in our reporting.
However, we do not simply agree to off the record communications without question. We don’t grant the ability to speak off the record retroactively, for instance. Think of it as a contract: If we sign up, we’re bound to its terms. If we don’t… then no deal.
We will also generally ask why the communication needs to be confidential. And we may follow-up with other sources to find someone who has the same information but who is willing to speak on the record or on background.
Either way, if we agree that we’re off the record, it’s a promise.
(For further information on the protection of journalists’ confidential information and sources in the United States, here’s a resource that goes much deeper.)
— On Background (the happy medium)
On background means that we will not identify you personally by name or job title but that we may use your words or the information you share with us in our reporting, and we may attribute that information to “a spokesperson” or “a company representative” or similar.
This is another agreement that must be made in advance. Specifically note that you want to share information on background before you share it, and remember that any Blockworks reporter or editor has to actually indicate that we’re a party to this agreement.
Again: Ask first! Seek permission, not forgiveness!
Anonymous Sources
Blockworks may report on stories which have been sourced partly, or entirely, on background — or colloquially, through ‘anonymous sources’.
When such sources are the primary sources for any article, their inclusion will require that the editor-in-chief approves their use. In so doing, the editor-in-chief will require that the reporter disclose why the source needs to remain anonymous, and how proximate the source is to the information itself. The reporter will not be asked to divulge the name of a source, nor information that would clearly dox the source, but they may be asked to provide details such as an approximate job title, a date on which a conversation took place, a location, and so on. Any anonymity promised to a source will be likewise respected by the editor-in-chief.
While we are committed to protecting the privacy of sources to whom anonymity has been promised, Blockworks will attempt to verify the information they provide with other sources.
We will run a story based on one anonymous source only in the most extreme cases, where the public’s need-to-know is taken into account and there is no practicable way to source the information elsewhere.
For Communications Professionals
Our rules for working with public relations agencies and departments, and company or DAO communications professionals, are clearly articulated here to prevent misunderstandings.
Embargoes
We strongly discourage the submission of embargoed news to Blockworks, and our default setting is that we do not recognize or abide by embargoes unless we agree to do so in advance.
Therefore we strongly suggest that communications professionals ask us in advance whether we wish to receive and observe their embargoed news.
Embargoes, while commonplace in the crypto media industry, do not always serve us or our readers well. We will agree to an embargo only when there is a clear reason for it to exist. For instance, while sharing information that might materially affect a stock price or equity is a valid reason for an embargo, we do not consider a marketing strategy of releasing news across multiple media outlets to be consistent with our mission to serve our readers with timely and accurate news.
Instead of an embargo, we request that communications professionals consider sharing exclusive news with Blockworks if you want us to prepare meaningful articles and solicit further comment and insight in advance of a specific time and date.
If we are offered a story exclusively, we take that to mean that you have not shared the information with other media outlets. We may also under certain circumstances consider news that we have the right to publish ahead of other outlets.
In all cases, such agreements must be made in writing, and in advance of sharing your news with us.
We hope that by articulating these policies and principles clearly, we can work effectively with communications professionals to provide our readers with news that they can trust and that is of value.
If your goal is to include Blockworks as part of your marketing strategy, our advertising sales team can be reached here.
Formats and Attachments
Blockworks editors and reporters are strongly discouraged from opening PDF documents and Word docs due to the risks involved with attachments. We prefer that pitches are sent as in-line emails or as Google docs open for viewing.
Communications Professionals and Sourcing
Finally, communications professionals are not generally afforded the same latitude as the general public when discussing stories, and all conversations and communications with those whose primary job is to communicate with the media will be considered on the record unless specifically agreed otherwise in writing, and in advance.
Corrections, Clarifications and Updates
While we strive for accuracy in our work, we are also a hard-working breaking newsroom. We are not perfect. We encourage the subjects of our article and the general public to suggest corrections, clarifications, and updates when they see the need. See the contact details at the bottom of this page.
We transparently issue timely updates and clearly indicate the time and nature of such updates at the bottom of our articles.
We do not publish update notices for grammatical, spelling, or formatting changes, or for other non-substantive changes.
Disclosures, Personal Investments, and Conflicts
Reporters and editors at Blockworks are committed to avoiding conflicts of interest in their work.
While we are not prohibited from covering stories that mention a cryptocurrency or equity in which a reporter may be invested, reporters are required to note to their editor that they hold such a position.
We are not permitted to write or edit stories on a cryptocurrency or equity in which we are invested if that asset is the primary subject of an article, which is determined by the editor (or, if the editor holds the position, by the editor-in-chief).
We are not permitted to trade any cryptocurrency or equity in which we are invested within 72 hours of mentioning or writing about that asset in any capacity, with the exception of stories that may mention or be focused on Bitcoin or Eth (which are essentially the ‘currencies of record’ of the cryptocurrency world, similar to the dollar or pound sterling).
If a story requires that a reporter or editor mention an asset they have traded in the 72 hours before publication, the story will be assigned to another writer or editor.
We update our public financial disclosures quarterly.
Opinions and News Analysis
Opinion and news analysis will be clearly labeled as such. Opinions and news analysis do not necessarily represent the views of Blockworks, its principals, its owners, or staff, other than those credited with a byline.
Where news analysis appears in the same article as a straight news report, it will be bylined by a different author who will be clearly identified as a news analyst for the piece.
Plagiarism
Blockworks has a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. Where our reporting is based on other media reports, press releases, written statements, or social media postings, we will clearly identify the source of that information.
Social Media
While we strive to ensure that our social media posts are accurate and factual, they do not live under the same umbrella as our journalism and are often posted by members of the Blockworks team who are not journalists or editors. We kindly ask readers to understand that the same journalistic diligence may not be applied to the quickfire nature of social media posting, though we welcome feedback and corrections in the same manner.
Note that our journalists and staff may operate their own social media accounts, and Blockworks has no control over, or input into, what they may post on their own accounts.
Sponsored Content
Our Sponsored Content team is completely separate from our Editorial team. Journalists and Editors at Blockworks do not have input into the commissioning, writing, production, editing, timing, or publication of Sponsored Content in any way.
AI and Generative Tools
Blockworks does not currently use AI or or generative text tools in its journalism. We are experimenting with using imagery created by AI, and we attribute these images accordingly. When (and if) we use AI in any of our writing, we will update this page and note that AI tools have been used in producing any text on our Editorial pages.
Ownership
For the first five years of our existence, we were privately-owned by our two founders (Mike Ippolito and Jason Yanowitz) and we had no ownership connections to cryptocurrency companies, funds, exchanges, or any issuer of cryptocurrency. In May of 2023 we raised a $12 million dollar investment led by 10T Holdings with participation from Framework Ventures and Santiago Santos to help us continue to build our information platform.
Further Reading on Journalistic Ethics
The Society of Professional Journalists has published a Code of Ethics which is the working document from which some of these points have been sourced, and which has inspired other aspects of our Ethics Statement.
Contact
If you have news tips, suggestions, a request for correction, or any other feedback on our journalism, we encourage you to contact our news desk: [email protected]
If you wish to contact the writer of a story directly, you can find contact information for our staff here.
Last updated May 31st 2023
