Blockworks Acquires Messari In Deal Highlighting Crypto’s Data Consolidation Race
Blockworks, a prominent crypto data and investor relations platform based in New York, has recently made headlines with its acquisition of rival company Messari. This strategic move highlights the ongoing consolidation trends within the digital asset industry and sheds light on the challenges faced by once high-flying crypto startups.
The acquisition brings together two of the largest players in the crypto information business. Messari, established in 2018, has developed a comprehensive data platform covering over 40,000 digital assets, offering APIs, market intelligence, research tools, and AI-powered workflows utilized by a wide range of stakeholders including funds, exchanges, regulators, and developers. On the other hand, Blockworks, also founded in 2018, has been focusing on the issuer side of crypto capital markets, providing standardized disclosures through its Token Transparency Framework and a full-stack investor relations platform for onchain assets.
Blockworks reportedly acquired Messari for over $10 million, a significant markdown from Messari’s previous valuation of approximately $300 million when it secured a $35 million Series B funding round led by Brevan Howard’s crypto arm in 2022. This discount can be attributed to Messari’s recent challenges, such as the departure of co-founder and longtime CEO Ryan Selkis in 2024 and subsequent staff reductions, in addition to the broader headwinds affecting the crypto sector.
Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockworks, emphasized the significance of this acquisition in bridging the gap between issuers and investors in the market. He highlighted how issuers can maintain a trusted record of their business while investors, exchanges, and regulators can access that record through research, APIs, and automated workflows.
The deal was partially funded through Blockworks’ recent Series A extension, which valued the company at $192 million. This round was co-led by ParaFi and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and other investors. Blockworks stated that the capital raised was specifically intended to consolidate the fragmented crypto data and information market, drawing parallels to the consolidation of Wall Street’s information layer around dominant platforms like Bloomberg, FactSet, and S&P Global.
Following Selkis’s departure, Messari CEO Diran Li, who had been repositioning the company as an “AI-first company,” will join Blockworks as a senior leader alongside co-founders Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito. This acquisition comes at a time when crypto M&A activity remains robust, with 144 deals totaling $11.8 billion in transaction value recorded in 2026 so far, according to data from Architect Partners.
Both Blockworks and Messari executives have expressed their commitment to enhancing the combined platform’s data coverage, APIs, compliance workflows, and AI-native research tools as digital assets increasingly shift towards onchain platforms. As the digital asset industry continues to evolve, this acquisition marks a significant step towards providing comprehensive and reliable information to stakeholders in the crypto space.
