Ryan Selkis is the entrepreneur who co-founded Messari, a crypto data and research platform that reached a roughly $300 million valuation in 2022 before he stepped down as CEO in 2024. He first drew attention in crypto media a decade earlier, reporting on the Mt. Gox exchange’s collapse under the pseudonym Two Bit Idiot.
Selkis left Messari entirely later that year after a wave of political posts on X drew internal backlash, and the company was ultimately sold to Blockworks in 2026 for a fraction of its earlier valuation.
Who Is Ryan Selkis?
Selkis grew up in Albany, New York, and earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from Boston College in 2008. He worked as an analyst at JPMorgan Chase and later as an associate at venture firm Summit Partners, where he first encountered Bitcoin in 2011. He was skeptical at first, and it took the 2013 shutdown of the dark web marketplace Silk Road to convince him Bitcoin had legitimate, non-criminal uses.
In 2013, Selkis started a blog under the pseudonym Two Bit Idiot to work through his own thinking on Bitcoin, joining an early wave of crypto bloggers and commentators, the kind of figures profiled on this crypto personalities page. That blog turned into a scoop in February 2014, when he reported serious problems at the Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox weeks before it collapsed. He enrolled at MIT’s Sloan School of Management later that year, then dropped out to work on crypto full time.
Selkis’ Career and Contributions
After Summit Partners, Selkis joined the founding team at Digital Currency Group, where he ran seed investing and helped lead its 2016 acquisition of CoinDesk. He then became Managing Director at CoinDesk, growing its Consensus conference, before leaving in 2018 to found Messari.
Messari grew into a widely used crypto data platform, publishing an annual Crypto Theses report and eventually covering tens of thousands of digital assets. It raised a $35 million Series B in 2022 from Brevan Howard Digital, Point72 Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures at a valuation reportedly around $300 million. Selkis also built political fundraising efforts for crypto, work that helped land him a spot on CoinDesk’s Most Influential list for 2023.
Selkis stepped down as Messari’s CEO in July 2024 after political posts on X led colleagues to intervene, according to Decrypt and Cointelegraph. Chief Revenue Officer Eric Turner took over as interim CEO while Selkis moved into an advisory role, though he left entirely later that year to launch Project Solomon, a venture combining AI research and political strategy.
Selkis’ Views and Positions
Selkis has repeatedly and publicly criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission under former chair Gary Gensler. Replying to a Gensler post on X in July 2024, Selkis wrote, “We’re so close to your inevitable jail sentence, I can almost taste it,” according to CoinDesk. He has argued the SEC treats digital assets as though they were traditional securities rather than a distinct asset class, and has called for Congress and the courts, not the agency itself, to set crypto’s regulatory rules.
Selkis’ Net Worth in 2026
No verified personal net worth figure for Ryan Selkis is publicly available. What is documented is Messari’s valuation, which reached roughly $300 million during its 2022 Series B round, according to CoinDesk, a figure that reflects the company’s worth rather than Selkis’s personal stake.
That valuation looked very different by 2026: Messari sold to Blockworks that June for just over $10 million, according to Bitcoin Magazine, and Selkis had already left the company by then. Treat any specific figure for his personal wealth found online without a named source as unverified.
Selkis in the News
Messari, the company Selkis founded and led for six years, was acquired by crypto data platform Blockworks in June 2026 for just over $10 million, a steep discount from its 2022 valuation, according to Bitcoin Magazine. By the time of the sale, Messari had already gone through a leadership change following Selkis’s 2024 exit, with the company repositioning around an AI-first strategy under new leadership. Selkis, who had moved on to Project Solomon, was not part of the deal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a refresher on Ryan Selkis? Here are the questions readers most often ask about him.
Who is Ryan Selkis?
Ryan Selkis is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Messari, a crypto data company he led from 2018 until stepping down in July 2024. He previously worked at JPMorgan Chase, Digital Currency Group, and CoinDesk, and first gained attention for reporting the 2014 Mt. Gox collapse under the pseudonym Two Bit Idiot.
What is Ryan Selkis’s net worth in 2026?
No verified personal net worth figure for Selkis is publicly available, according to Traders Union. Messari was valued at roughly $300 million during its 2022 Series B, but that describes the company, not his personal wealth, and it predates Messari’s 2026 sale to Blockworks for just over $10 million.
What did Ryan Selkis found?
Selkis co-founded Messari in 2018, a crypto data and research platform that grew to cover tens of thousands of digital assets before he stepped down as CEO in 2024. He first became known in crypto circles for breaking news of the 2014 Mt. Gox collapse.
Why did Ryan Selkis leave Messari?
Selkis stepped down as CEO in July 2024 after political posts on X, made around the assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump, drew criticism from colleagues and the wider crypto industry. He moved into an advisory role, then left entirely later that year to focus on Project Solomon.
Is Ryan Selkis still involved with Messari in 2026?
Selkis is no longer involved with Messari. He left the company entirely in 2024, and Messari was acquired by Blockworks in June 2026, well after his departure, amid a steep drop from its earlier valuation.
What is Ryan Selkis doing now?
Since leaving Messari, Selkis has focused on Project Solomon, a venture combining artificial intelligence research with political strategy. He continues to comment publicly on crypto regulation and U.S. politics, though he holds no operating role at Messari today.
