Blockworks Acquires Messari in Crypto Data Consolidation

Crypto data and media company Blockworks has acquired rival research platform Messari, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Bloomberg also confirmed the deal.

The acquisition joins two of the most prominent names in crypto data and research. Blockworks, cofounded by Jason Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito, raised at a $192 million valuation in April from a round led by ParaFi Capital and Reciprocal Ventures, with Coinbase Ventures also participating. The company had explicitly said it planned to use that capital to acquire competitors. Financial terms of the Messari purchase were not disclosed.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Blockworks paid more than $10 million for the company, a significant discount from a reported $300 million its was valued at in 2022

Messari's Rough Year

Messari was already in a weakened position heading into the deal. In March, CEO Eric Turner stepped down alongside a round of layoffs as the company pivoted to an "AI-first" strategy focused on institutional research. CTO Diran Li assumed the chief executive role. Turner had himself taken over as CEO in 2024 after founder Ryan Selkis resigned following a series of controversial posts.

Messari also shelved its flagship Mainnet conference in New York, which had drawn thousands of attendees at its peak. The retreat, combined with leadership churn, left the research firm in a significantly diminished competitive position relative to the cycle highs when it was seen as the go-to source for institutional crypto intelligence.

Blockworks' Roll-Up Ambition

Blockworks has moved aggressively from crypto media into data infrastructure. The company's platform ingests trillions of rows of blockchain and exchange data from nearly 100 sources. It also operates Blockworks IR, an investor relations product for on-chain companies, and the Token Transparency Framework, a disclosure standard that has rated more than 30 token issuers and been presented to the SEC and CFTC.

Yanowitz has cast the data push in explicitly infrastructure terms. "Our mission is to build trust in onchain markets," he said in April when announcing the fundraise. "Every liquid asset class in history has required data you can rely on, a way for businesses to communicate with investors, and disclosures that hold issuers accountable. In traditional markets, that infrastructure is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In crypto, almost none of it exists yet."

Blockworks has positioned itself as the crypto equivalent of Morningstar, which built a durable financial data business alongside its media and ratings operations. Messari served a broadly similar market, with research reports, on-chain analytics, and an enterprise data terminal.