Decoding Messari Founder Ryan Selkis: The Underlying Logic of Trump's Loyal Crypto Fans

Original Title: “Why is Ryan Selkis so angry? Inside the Messari CEO's jump from Biden to Trump”

Author: Ben Weiss

Translation: Golem, Odaily Planet Daily

Ryan Selkis seems to enjoy stirring up controversy. The CEO of the crypto analytics firm Messari has publicly labeled Silicon Valley moguls Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Ron Conway as "old rogues"; criticized his country's leaders as cowards; challenged billionaire Democrat Mark Cuban, a supporter of cryptocurrency, to a showdown; and launched scathing verbal attacks on SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, calling him a fraud, sycophant, loser, and sociopath; meanwhile, Selkis stated in late April, "This government and its agents should be severely condemned."

Some in the crypto industry may find his behavior off-putting or even repulsive. For example, the founder of Mask announced that he would cease all potential dealings with Messari and stop attending their events, advising partners and portfolio companies to think twice before collaborating with Messari.

So why does Ryan Selkis repeatedly make these extreme statements on public social media and staunchly support Trump? This article is based on an interview conducted by DL News reporters with Ryan Selkis at the end of June, translated by Odaily Planet Daily to decode this "active CEO" for readers.

Summary:

• Ryan Selkis is ruthless on social media;
• He once supported Biden, but now he fully supports Trump;
• His shift reflects a trend of the crypto industry leaning towards Trump.

Extensive Connections and Influence

Ryan Selkis has nearly 360,000 followers on the X platform.

He once drafted a plan aimed at bringing attention to cryptocurrency in the 2024 election and helped strengthen FairShake—a super PAC that has raised nearly $180 million to support candidates in the crypto industry.

He has extensive connections and deep ties with many celebrities in the crypto industry. He claims to be personal friends with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and venture capitalist Fred Ehrsam. Messari has received support from Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, among others. At the same time, Selkis's business has attracted Wall Street's attention, with Point72 Ventures, led by hedge fund billionaire and owner of the New York Mets Steve Cohen, also investing in Messari.

Unlike Armstrong, who positions himself as a calm, non-partisan cryptocurrency advocate, Selkis openly supports Trump in the presidential campaign, and his rhetoric has become increasingly extreme in the process.

"My level of rhetoric has been gradually increasing over the past six months," Selkis said in the interview, insisting that his insults are a form of retaliation and that none were "preemptive."

The main target of Selkis's attacks remains the SEC, which has intensified its litigation against crypto companies since the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX in November 2022.

Selkis stated that while he voted for Biden in 2020, he has always viewed the SEC as his mortal enemy, while Trump seems to have become an ally—this political shift also reflects the broader trend of the crypto industry leaning towards Trump.

However, Selkis's sometimes extreme hostile language and insults have left many puzzled.

Billionaire Mark Cuban remarked, "I don't know what's wrong with Selkis." Selkis has countered in several interviews, "He knows exactly what I'm doing."

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman also expressed confusion. "Reid has no idea what Selkis is talking about," a spokesperson for Reid said in response to Selkis's claim that Hoffman was conducting a "covert resistance campaign" against the Messari team.

Ongoing Extreme Behavior Sparks Discontent

Selkis's public extreme statements have left some employees feeling bewildered.

A former employee stated that he tried to push the industry forward by forcefully promoting his views, but his manner of expression was destructive. Another interviewed employee noted that he had been joking around for about seven years, although his recent online statements have become more radical.

Selkis himself acknowledged that some clients are concerned about his behavior, but he assured them that he is fine and stated that his public remarks have not affected Messari's business.

Balding, with a big beard, the robust Selkis lives in a five-bedroom house in the suburbs of Baltimore with his wife and four children. He holds a bachelor's degree from Boston College, and his crypto company is valued at $300 million in its latest funding round.

By secular standards, Selkis leads a happy life. So why does he seem so extreme?

By Any Means Necessary

During the interview at the end of June, a signed photo of Australian golfer Greg Norman hung on the wall behind Selkis. The golfer wrote on the signature, "PLAY HARD, ATTACK LIFE."

The 6-foot-5 CEO appears to be a typical cryptocurrency enthusiast. His username on the X platform is "twobitidiot," and he frequently posts about drinking IPA beer. In conversation, Selkis is cautious but still somewhat eccentric.

"I think I do well online," Selkis joked in response.

Selkis's career began in investment banking and venture capital. Eventually, he held executive positions at Digital Currency Group and CoinDesk. Later, he raised about $61 million for Messari, a crypto analytics company he co-founded in 2018.

Selkis stated in the interview that his public persona is "as foolish as a fox." "I can be any character or wear any mask in public when needed, but I won't change privately."

Reasons for Taking Down the SEC

Selkis stated that the purpose of his public persona is simple: to completely reform the SEC. "The SEC is a corrupt agency that must be taken down and rebuilt from the ground up," he posted on X in June.

His opposition to the regulatory agency stems from his belief that its actions are dishonest. The agency has not treated cryptocurrency as a new asset class worthy of its own proprietary laws but has instead sought to regulate it as if it were the stock market.

Since 2018, the SEC has regularly filed lawsuits against crypto industry companies (in fact, this has occurred during Trump's presidency). In 2023, the agency intensified its crackdown, targeting some leading companies in the industry, including Coinbase and Binance. If the SEC prevails in its lawsuits, token issuers will have to register like stock-issuing companies and bear the burden of regular financial disclosures.

This is detrimental to Messari.

Selkis compares the importance of Messari to EDGAR, the online database where the SEC publishes financial documents submitted by publicly traded companies. Clients rely on Messari for in-depth reports on blockchain ecosystems like Solana, as well as data on cryptocurrency prices or the amounts raised by crypto startups. He stated that Messari's fate is directly tied to the rise and fall of the crypto industry; if crypto goes to zero, the demand for analysis will also disappear.

Selkis 2024: The Crypto Political Machine Starts

As a result, Selkis has been seeking help from politicians. According to documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, he has personally donated over $115,000 to political candidates since 2018, many of whom explicitly support cryptocurrency. With recent donations to Trump, this figure is now approaching $200,000. He has even considered entering politics himself.

In September 2021, he announced plans to run for U.S. Senate, writing in a later-deleted post on X: "Selkis 2024, it's time to launch the crypto political machine," but he ultimately backed down, believing he could not win in his blue state (New York, Massachusetts, or Maryland, Democratic strongholds).

However, he did not leave the political stage. In 2022, he defended cryptocurrency in an interview with Fox News and stated that he founded the Digital Freedom Alliance to advocate for the industry on Capitol Hill.

Turning to Support Trump

In February 2023, after meeting with Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, and other notable figures in the crypto space, Selkis drafted a Leonidas plan—this plan involved large-scale fundraising from industry executives to support cryptocurrency initiatives. However, he ultimately integrated his network into the existing FairShake and merged the operations of the Digital Freedom Alliance under the banner of this super PAC. By December of that year, Armstrong and other wealthy crypto elite members had contributed $80 million to the cause.

At that time, Selkis stated that he handed over the day-to-day operations of FairShake to political consultants while telling his wife and team that he would exit politics the following year, but he did not stay away for long.

In January of this year, pharmaceutical executive and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy ended his run as a Republican presidential candidate and endorsed Trump. Ramaswamy was Selkis's chosen presidential candidate, but Selkis quickly supported Trump as well. Selkis identifies as a "right-leaning libertarian," and he initially felt repulsed by the drama of Trump's first four years in office.

However, when Selkis moved from New Jersey to Washington in 2020, he observed the complexities of the capital's political scene up close and began to sympathize with Trump.

He did some basic math. According to CoinGecko, the total value of cryptocurrencies increased fivefold during Trump's presidency, reaching $1 trillion by early 2021. He noted that the market had remained relatively stable for most of Biden's term. Although the market cap of cryptocurrencies hit a historic high of $3 trillion in November 2021, it has stabilized at $2.5 trillion after a severe contraction in 2022.

"The data doesn't lie," Selkis asserted.

Deciding to Stand Out

Initially, Selkis planned to support Trump privately rather than publicly. The crypto industry has long aligned itself with Trump-style politics, and business leaders are typically right-leaning. Selkis acknowledged this but worried that being an explicit Trump supporter would provoke backlash.

"To voice risks loudly," Selkis said in the interview.

Selkis appreciates Trump's long-standing commitment to reducing the size of the federal government and draining the "deep state" of Washington.

Selkis hopes for less government intervention, providing more freedom for "builders and creators."

Despite Trump being convicted in June on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Selkis views this as a "political circus."

"We don't elect angels; we elect leaders," he stated in the interview. For Selkis, debates about Trump's character or policies are secondary; he is essentially a single-issue voter who believes that on the issue of cryptocurrency, Trump far surpasses Biden.

Enthusiasm for Trump

Selkis deleted his history on the X platform before the end of April, but by this time, his statements had become more pronounced. He posted that we only have one chance: to ensure that President Trump stands against the deep state during his term and appoints cabinet members inclined towards libertarianism.

As Selkis increasingly posted in support of Trump, he found that no one cared about his tweets on crypto-related topics anymore. Additionally, with a large following on the X platform, he hoped that his growing visibility in support of Trump would catch the attention of Trump's campaign team.

He revealed that it indeed garnered attention, but he refused to disclose who he was in contact with in Trump's camp (Trump's campaign team did not respond to requests for comment).

In May, Selkis believed that the number of crypto supporters publicly backing Trump had reached a tipping point when he flew to Trump's Florida resort Mar-a-Lago to attend a gathering of Trump NFT holders.

When Trump answered audience questions, Selkis heard his name while eating salad. He walked on stage, said a few words, and then shook hands with Trump. After that, Selkis decided to "double, triple, or even 100 times" his support for the former president. Since then, other CEOs in the crypto space have also come out in support of Trump.

These include Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange and custodian Gemini, as well as former Kraken CEO Jesse Powell.

Selkis stated, "It's hard to deny my impact on changing the landscape," but both the Winklevoss brothers and Powell did not respond to inquiries about whether Selkis's rhetoric encouraged them to publicly support Trump.

"The Genius Unifier"

Since May, Selkis's online statements have become increasingly outrageous, claiming to be the Thanos of the crypto industry, the genius unifier.

Analyzing his X account, from mid-June to July, he averaged 117 posts per day, usually tweeting between 3 AM and 5 AM New York time.

Selkis stated in the interview that he wakes up early every day to get ahead of competitors; he is very concerned about how others interpret his statements and claims he is conducting an organized and planned "information war."

At the beginning of July, Selkis said he was reducing his posting, but after the assassination attempt on Trump on July 13, things changed again.

"A lot of people are pretending to be angry," he posted, "I'm finding it hard to live normally right now; I'm consumed by anger."

Clearly, he can never leave social media.