300 million becomes 10 million, Messari still got undervalued.

Author: Mahe, Foresight News

On June 12, the leading platform for crypto data and capital markets, Blockworks, announced the acquisition of its long-time competitor Messari, with a transaction value exceeding $10 million. Messari reached a valuation of approximately $300 million in 2022. The significant discount in this deal reflects the survival pressures faced by high-valuation startups in a deep bear market and the wave of consolidation in the data infrastructure sector.

Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz stated in the official announcement, "Messari has provided transparency, market intelligence, and comprehensive data coverage on every crypto asset for eight years, building the most extensive data set in the industry. This integration will combine Blockworks' strengths in issuer disclosures, investor relations, and compliance workflows with Messari's advantages in data breadth and API capabilities, jointly creating a 'single source of truth' for on-chain markets."

Transaction Details

According to the official Blockworks announcement and multiple media confirmations, after the acquisition, Messari CEO Diran Li will join Blockworks in a senior leadership role.

Diran Li

Core assets of Messari, including its data platform and API, will be integrated into the Blockworks ecosystem. The API supports multi-dimensional data such as assets, markets, exchanges, news, research, stablecoins, protocols, networks, token unlocks, fundraising, social sentiment, event monitoring, watchlists, and more, and is used by funds, exchanges, developers, and various market participants.

Blockworks stated that this deal is their first major acquisition following the completion of a Series A extension financing several weeks ago. The round valued the company at about $192 million, led by ParaFi Capital and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others. The primary purpose of this funding is to integrate fragmented data and information sectors within crypto.

Blockworks and Messari

Founded in 2018 by Jason Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito, Blockworks is headquartered in New York. Initially focused on media and events, it built influence among crypto practitioners and investors through podcasts (such as Empire), research reports, and offline summits.

Jason Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito

As the industry matured, the company gradually shifted from content creation to an on-chain capital markets intelligence platform, emphasizing institutional-grade data, investor relations, and compliance tools.

Around October 2025, Blockworks shut down its news division to focus resources on data, investor relations, and compliance services, with its Blockworks Intelligence business line becoming a growth focus. The Series A extension financing completed this April was aimed at this transformation and future acquisitions. Yanowitz publicly stated that the company's revenue is rapidly scaling, with this funding clearly targeting "the integration of fragmented crypto data and information sectors."

Blockworks' strength lies in issuer-side capabilities: helping on-chain asset issuers (protocols, chains, foundations, applications, stablecoins, RWA issuers, prediction markets, etc.) establish standardized disclosure frameworks, investor relations processes, and compliance workflows. Its products serve institutions seeking to enter on-chain markets, providing full support from due diligence to ongoing monitoring.

Messari, also founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, was established by Ryan Selkis and Dan McArdle. The company initially focused on professional-grade crypto research and data analysis, quickly becoming the preferred platform for institutions and retail investors seeking reliable information.

Ryan Selkis

In September 2022, Messari completed a $35 million Series B funding round led by Brevan Howard’s crypto division, with participation from Point72 Ventures and others, valuing the company at around $300 million. This round occurred at the end of a bull market, reflecting strong market demand for high-quality data infrastructure. However, after 2022, the bear market persisted, crypto project funding tightened, and trading volumes declined, posing challenges for Messari. After co-founder and former CEO Ryan Selkis left in 2024, the company underwent personnel optimization. In the bear market environment, high-valuation data companies struggled to maintain previous growth expectations, increasing survival pressures.

Behind the Acquisition

According to Architect Partners data, there have been 144 mergers and acquisitions totaling $11.8 billion so far in 2026, a roughly 3.5% increase compared to the same period last year. Amid pressure on trading volumes and token prices, some high-valuation startups are choosing mergers to consolidate resources or exit.

Architect Partners founder Eric Risley pointed out that the industry is in a phase of segmentation, and pressure may lead to more distressed sales. The gap between Messari’s $300 million valuation and its sale price of just over $10 million exemplifies this phenomenon—early valuations based on growth narratives are being recalibrated in light of fundamentals and capital efficiency.

Yanowitz emphasized in the announcement, "This acquisition connects two sides of the market—issuers maintaining their credit records, and investors, exchanges, and regulators consuming these records through research, APIs, and automation workflows." The core data foundation provided by Messari is essential for AI agents: their ability to operate depends on accessible data and callable APIs.

The crypto industry is at a critical inflection point: institutions are accelerating on-chain activities, and sectors like stablecoins, RWA, and prediction markets are expanding rapidly, increasing demand for standardized disclosures, compliance monitoring, real-time data, and programmable access. Traditional financial platforms like Bloomberg, FactSet, and S&P Global have built data moats through long-term integration; similarly, crypto needs such infrastructure but must adapt to native, real-time, structured on-chain data.

Based on Messari’s vast data set and its own issuer disclosure and IR capabilities, Blockworks is forming a full closed-loop system—from data collection, verification, and analysis to distribution and compliance. The introduction of AI will further accelerate the availability of high-quality, structured data, which is the core fuel for training and operating on-chain agents. For Messari’s team, joining a platform with more resources and strategic clarity will help their data assets realize greater value within a broader ecosystem, rather than shrinking under independent operational pressures.

The crypto data and research field is shifting from a fragmented landscape to a landscape of winners and consolidators. In cyclical fluctuations, data and trust are long-term moats, and integration is often one of the best ways to navigate cycles.