Messari lays off roughly 15% of staff amid industry-wide cuts, CEO Turner confirms

Cryptocurrency data site Messari has laid off approximately 15% of its staff, CEO Eric Turner told The Block in a direct message. 

“We made some changes to our organizational structure earlier this week to streamline the business and double down on the growth we've seen across our core product lines,” Turner said. The company has seemingly not yet publicized the news. 

The 15% figure accounts for "full-time" employees impacted by the downsizing. A source familiar with the situation said the company also decided not to renew a number of contractors, which is a common practice at the beginning of the new year. 

The move comes amid a recent wave of layoffs in the crypto industry, including at U.S.-based exchange Kraken, Axie Infinity game developer  Sky Mavis  and stablecoin issuer  Paxos . CoinDesk, a competitor of The Block and Messari, has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs since being purchased by the Bullish crypto exchange, including most recently three senior editors .  

Messari, founded in 2018, is one of the most popular blockchain research firms. The company publishes analytical reports on emerging crypto sectors, provides pricing data and hosts an annual conference called Mainnet in New York City. 

Founder Ryan Selkis led the firm up until this past year following several caustic incidents on social media , including one where an admittedly intoxicated Selkis said he hoped opponents of President-elect Donald Trump would “die in a f-----g fire” during the aftermath of the first assassination attempt of the Republican candidate.

Selkis entered into a number of online arguments in the run-up to the U.S. election over topics including immigration, cancel culture and other conservative talking points. He is among a number of high-profile crypto commentators who have vocally supported Trump’s bid for re-election and made at least one appearance at a Mar-a-Lago gala. 

"This week was the first week in 6.5 years that my politics and rhetoric put the team in harms way," Selkis, who posts under the alias “twobitidiot,” said on X at the time. "As such, I have decided to step aside as CEO."

Turner, who previously served as vice president of market intelligence at Messari, was promoted to chief executive following Selkis’ decision to step down. Selkis described his terminal discussions with the firm as “tough love.”

At one point during his tenure, Selkis planned to hire 1,000 analysts. Messari was last valued at $300 million during a $21 million capital raise in 2022 . Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures, hedge fund giant Brevan Howard and Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital are major financial backers of the firm.

Note: Messari is a competitor of The Block.