Messari raises $35 million to expand ‘Bloomberg of crypto’ ambitions

The funding round, led by Brevan Howard Digital, reflects the growing popularity of Messari, one of a handful of firms that have made a business of transforming blockchain data into standardized reports. Selkis compares Messari to the crypto version of Bloomberg, the financial news and data giant.

While Messari’s collection of charts and reports gives investors a clearer picture of the crypto landscape, Selkis also sees the service as laying the groundwork for a future era where much of the current company compliance and reporting regime will become unnecessary.

According to Selkis, the transparent nature of blockchains means that data about things like insider trading and governance decisions are visible to everyone – meaning that one day investors will no longer need a central authority like the SEC to compile and publish company data.

“If we can prove that anyone can look at a protocol and come up with financial criteria for these blockchains, that will alleviate the need for centralized reporting. And there’s no reason why blockchains can’t provide the same for public stocks,” said Selkis Fortune.

But while blockchain-based projects can offer a level of transparency that traditional companies do not, few are able to analyze raw blockchain data. Most projects, meanwhile, are not equipped to package the data into a standardized reporting format.

This situation has allowed Messari to build a two-sided business where it sells subscriptions to investors while charging blockchain protocols to compile and package their data. Selkis declined to provide specific revenue figures for Messari, but said the company has 35 to 40 blockchain projects, including household names such as Uniswap, Compound and Solana. He added that he believes Messari is the largest crypto subscription by revenue.

Messari’s competitors include The Block, a crypto news site that also has a significant research department.

The new business of standardization may seem like an attractive opportunity for established financial giants, but Selkis is not worried about competition from the likes of Bloomberg or JPMorgan.

“If you can’t outperform incumbents, you deserve to go bankrupt,” Selkis said, adding that incumbents typically pull back from investing in crypto during downturns — a time he says is ripe for investing.

New products, new policy

Messari, which also raised a $21 million Series A round in 2021, intends to direct the bulk of the new funding round to expand its analytics and investigative services. The new round also coincides with the launch of new products that will help investors compare crypto-assets across multiple networks, and create custom datasets.

The other Series B investors include Morgan Creek Digital and FTX Ventures, as well as existing investors Point72 Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Uncork Capital, Underscore VC, Galaxy and Coinbase Ventures.

The new products and investments, Selkis says, will help Messari achieve its goal of developing the crypto equivalent of GAAP-style standardized reporting for the crypto industry.

Meanwhile, Selkis continues to be a vocal advocate for reforms to the US regulatory regime and to the country’s political system more generally.

In this Two Bit Idiot persona, he often rails against “Goldman Gary” – his sobriety for SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who Selkis claims is actively hostile to the crypto industry and whose political ambitions have led him to deal with the industry in bad faith.

His political statements also include complaints that the United States has become a gerontocracy where political leaders in their 80s refuse to cede power or ideas to a younger generation.

Selkis, who has hinted at his own national political ambitions, acknowledges that he may need to “sand off the rough edges of his tweets” but that, in terms of substance, he has no regrets about the content of his tweets.

For now, Selkis is focused on building Messari as the so-called “crypto winter” drags on. Having worked in crypto for more than a decade across several downturns, Selkis says he’s not fazed by the current downturn, though he notes it differs from past ones in that this is the first “winter” to coincide with macroeconomic upheavals.

Messari’s funding announcement coincides with Mainnet, an annual crypto conference in New York City Selkis created that has become a flagship event for the industry. This year’s speakers include the CEOs of Binance and Coinbase as well as the inventor of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin.

When asked if he had any advice for future crypto entrepreneurs, Selkis gave a pithy answer.

“Wear a helmet,” he said.