Blockworks paid just over $10M for Messari, a 97% discount from its $300M peak. The deal combines two major crypto data platforms.
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Blockworks paid just over $10 million for Messari, a fraction of the $300 million valuation the crypto data firm commanded in 2022. The Wall Street Journal reported the deal Monday.
The acquisition merges two of the largest independent platforms in crypto information. Blockworks, based in New York, focuses on issuer-side disclosures and investor relations for onchain assets. Messari's database covers more than 40,000 digital assets. The company also provides APIs and research tools used by funds and exchanges.
Messari's valuation collapsed after a series of setbacks. Co-founder and longtime CEO Ryan Selkis left in 2024. The company cut staff. Its $35 million Series B in 2022, led by Brevan Howard's crypto arm with Point72 Ventures, now looks like a peak, the Journal reported.
"This acquisition connects the two sides of the market," said Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockworks. He said issuers maintain a trusted record of their business, and investors and exchanges consume that record through research, APIs, and automated workflows.
Blockworks funded the deal partly through a Series A extension that valued the company at $192 million. The round was led by ParaFi and Reciprocal Ventures, with Coinbase Ventures participating. Blockworks said it raised capital specifically to consolidate crypto's fragmented data market, drawing comparisons to how Wall Street's information layer coalesced around Bloomberg and FactSet.
Messari CEO Diran Li, who took over after Selkis and repositioned the firm as an AI-first company, will join Blockworks as a senior leader under Yanowitz and co-founder Michael Ippolito.
Crypto companies have completed 144 deals worth $11.8 billion so far in 2026, up about 3.5% from the same period last year, according to data from advisory firm Architect Partners.
Both companies said the combined platform would prioritize deeper data coverage and AI-native research tools.
Eric Risley, founder of Architect Partners, warned that sustained pressure on trading volumes and token prices could force more distressed sales. "We are in the midst of the creation of the haves and the have-nots," Risley said, per the Journal.
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