Who we publish

CAB is a specialist publication with a specialist readership: compliance and legal officers, founders, regulators, and the institutions building Africa’s digital asset economy. But we welcome contributions from anyone with something worth saying to them — whether you work inside the industry or bring a perspective from outside it.

You do not need to be a professional writer, and you do not need to contribute regularly or frequently — we are flexible. You need to know something our readers need to understand — a rule, a market, a licensing process, a piece of infrastructure — and be willing to explain it plainly and to our standards. We work with contributors at every level of writing experience; the editing is ours to do.

What serves our readers least is generalist commentary assembled from other coverage. The pieces that land best bring a vantage point, an argument or an explanation the reader could not have got from the press release.

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What we are looking for

• Analysis of a specific rule, instrument or decision, and what it means in practice for the people it governs.
• First-hand accounts of a process you have been through — a licence application, a bank de-risking, a market entry — with the detail others leave out.
• Comparative pieces that read one jurisdiction against another, or an African development against a global precedent.
• Explanations that make a genuinely complex mechanism — custody, a licensing regime, a stablecoin structure — understandable to a professional who is not a specialist in it.
• Argument that takes a clear, defensible position on a live question and makes the case with evidence.

In every case the test is the same: does the reader leave knowing something they could not have got from the press release?

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What we will not publish

These are firm. They are the reason a regulator or a bank’s risk team reads CAB, and no pitch, however good, moves them.

Writing about your own sector is welcome and expected. Writing a commercial for it is not — the line is disclosure and editorial control, both covered below.

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How to pitch

You are welcome to pitch an idea first or to send a finished article. A short pitch lets us shape the piece with you before you spend the hours; a complete draft is just as welcome if you would rather write it first.

Either way, email editorial@cryptoassetbuyer.com. A pitch is strongest when it includes:

As soon as we receive your contribution, we will acknowledge it and let you know our editorial decision. We reserve the absolute right to decide whether to publish.

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Writing for CAB

Above all: keep your article clear, concise and comprehensible, and write well. In practice that means:

• Write for the newcomer too. We know blockchain and crypto come with jargon and complexity, but your audience includes newbies. Explain plainly, define a term the first time it appears, and cut jargon that is not doing work.
• Lead with the point. State your central claim near the top. Do not build to it over ten paragraphs.
• Reference properly. If you make any reference in your work, whether a citation or a quotation, insert the link and name the source.
• Show the instrument. When you refer to a rule, circular, judgment or Act, name it and link to it. We read primary documents; so do our readers.
• Evidence, not assertion. Claims of fact need a source. Claims of opinion need a reason.
• Africa first. Global developments are welcome when read for what they mean here. The African reader is the one you are writing for.
• Length follows the argument. Say what the argument needs and stop.

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Standards and sourcing

Everything CAB publishes, including contributed work, meets the same standards:

• Accuracy. Check your facts, figures and dates before you submit. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you write; we verify, but the first duty is yours.
• Sourcing. Attribute facts to their source and link where possible. Where you rely on a named document, quote it accurately and in context.
• Fairness. Where you criticise an identifiable person or organisation, represent their position fairly. Serious allegations require a right of reply, which we will arrange before publication.
• Copyright. Please ensure you hold the copyright to the article you submit. The work must be yours, and plagiarism ends the relationship.
• Fresh or disclosed. We love and prefer fresh, previously unpublished articles. If your piece has been published before, say so clearly in your submission and tell us specifically where. We may still publish it — but that decision, as with every submission, is ours (section 9).
• No harm from carelessness. Do not name confidential sources, reveal security-sensitive detail, or publish personal data without basis.

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Disclosure and independence

CAB’s contributors work inside the sector they write about. That is a strength — it is where the insight comes from — but only if the reader can see the interest.

• Declare every relevant interest. If you have a financial, professional, advisory or personal interest in what you are writing about, tell us at pitch stage. We will carry a disclosure line in the published piece.
• We do not publish undisclosed advocacy. A piece that argues for a position you are paid to hold, without saying so, will not run — and its discovery ends the relationship.
• We will decline a clear conflict. Where the interest is such that no disclosure would cure it — writing about a matter you are directly financially exposed to — we will ask you to write on something else.
• Contributions are not advertising. If your aim is to promote a product or company, our partnerships team can help through labelled commercial content. That route is at /advertise/, and it is kept entirely separate from editorial.

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The editing process

CAB is an edited publication. When you write for us:

• If your article is accepted, it may be reviewed by the editorial team before it is finally published. We edit for accuracy, clarity, structure, length and house style, and we may query or ask you to strengthen a claim.
• Before publication, we will endeavour to share the reviewed draft with you for your authorial confirmation. The final editorial decision — including the headline, framing and whether to publish — rests with CAB.
• We may hold, decline or return a piece that does not meet our standards, even after commissioning. Agreeing a pitch is not a guarantee of publication.
• We fact-check, and we may ask you for your sources. Have them ready.

In making a publication decision we are guided mainly by our editorial policy and ethical policy. We reserve the absolute right to decide whether to publish your article.

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Rights, credit and payment

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Formats and specifications

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After you publish

• Corrections. If an error is found after publication, we correct it in public with a dated note. Tell us promptly if you spot one.
• Circulation. We will work with you to see your published article widely circulated across all our channels, and we ask that you reshare it across your own network too.
• Engagement. You are welcome to share and discuss your piece. If readers raise substantive points, we may invite a response.
• Again. If the first piece works, we would like the next. Our best contributor relationships are long ones.