Why Blockworks Acquired Messari for $10M After Its
Published 6/13/2026, 1:45:57 AM
The Blockworks acquisition of Messari for just over $10 million — representing a roughly 97% markdown from its $300 million valuation — reflects a convergence of company-specific distress and broader crypto sector headwinds. The deal, announced June 12, 2026, was less about Messari's intrinsic worth and more about its distressed state, making it an opportunistic purchase for Blockworks.
Why the Steep Discount?
Leadership Turmoil
The most significant factor was the departure of co-founder and longtime CEO Ryan Selkis in mid-2024. Selkis resigned following inflammatory political tweets about Trump, which he described as "literal war" with those who wouldn't vote for Trump. After a board "tough love session," Selkis left entirely to focus on "Project Solomon." This triggered a leadership vacuum — Eric Turner took over as interim CEO, then became CEO in 2024, before Diran Li (CTO) assumed the CEO role.
Operational Decline
Messari shelved its flagship Mainnet conference in New York, which had once drawn thousands of attendees. Significant staff reductions followed. The company attempted to pivot to an "AI-first" strategy for institutional research, but the transitions weakened its competitive position relative to its cycle highs.
Valuation Reset
The markdown reflects "both Messari's recent difficulties and broader headwinds gripping the crypto sector." Steep valuation resets have affected many once high-flying crypto startups. Blockworks itself raised at a $192 million valuation in its Series A extension — lower than Messari's prior $300 million valuation — illustrating the sector-wide correction.
Messari's Funding History
Messari had raised approximately $60 million across multiple rounds:
| Round | Date | Amount | Lead Investor | Post-Money Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | May 2018 | $1M | — | — |
| Seed | Nov 2019 | $4M | Uncork Capital | — |
| Series A | Aug 2021 | $21M | Point72 Ventures | ~$100M |
| Series B | Sep 2022 | $35M | Brevan Howard Digital | $300M |
The Series B was co-invested by Morgan Creek Digital, Samsung Next, FTX Ventures, Galaxy, Coinbase Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Kraken Ventures, and others — a star-studded roster that valued Messari at $300 million during the 2021-2022 bull market.
Strategic Rationale for Blockworks
Blockworks raised its Series A extension explicitly to consolidate crypto's fragmented data and information market. The deal serves several strategic purposes:
Complementary Strengths: Blockworks focuses on the issuer side of crypto capital markets — the Token Transparency Framework, investor relations platform for on-chain assets, and on-chain analytics. Messari covers the investor side — research, APIs, and market intelligence for 40,000+ digital assets. As Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz stated: "This acquisition connects the two sides of the market. Issuers maintain a trusted record of their business, and investors, exchanges, and regulators consume that record through research, APIs, and automated workflows."
Scale and Coverage: The combined entity serves 130+ protocols, exchanges, Big 4 audit firms, funds, and compliance teams — a significantly broader reach than either company alone.
Industry Consolidation: Blockworks explicitly compares itself to how Wall Street's information layer coalesced around Bloomberg, FactSet, and S&P Global. The vision is to become "the trusted data layer connecting issuers, investors, exchanges, regulators, and AI agents in on-chain markets."
Post-Acquisition Structure
Messari CEO Diran Li will join Blockworks as a senior leader under co-founders Jason Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito. The combined entity will emphasize expanded data coverage, robust APIs, compliance tools, and AI-driven research capabilities — targeting AI agents, stablecoins, prediction markets, and RWA tokenization as institutions migrate to blockchain.
Bottom Line
Blockworks acquired Messari at a steep discount because the latter was in distress — leadership upheaval, layoffs, and sector headwinds had eroded its market position and revenue trajectory. For Blockworks, it was a strategic opportunity to acquire valuable data infrastructure, institutional client relationships, and research capabilities at a fraction of their former cost, accelerating its consolidation play in crypto's fragmented information market.
Source Citation Gap
The research data does not include direct URLs for the cited claims. The supporting sources listed (Fortune, NBC News, Yahoo Finance, Axios, Forbes) are referenced by publication name only, and the specific acquisition price of "just over $10 million" lacks an independently verified direct source citation in the task output. Revenue or financial metrics showing Messari's decline are also not directly cited.