Messari co-founder Ryan Selkis steps down as CEO after aggressive political tweets

Key Takeaways

• Ryan Selkis resigned as CEO of Messari after his tweets about Trump opponents caused controversy.
• Eric Turner has been appointed as the acting CEO of Messari following Selkis's resignation.

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Ryan Selkis, co-founder and former CEO of crypto analytics firm Messari, has resigned following a series of inflammatory tweets inciting civil war and spewing anti-immigration rhetoric. The departure comes after Selkis made several controversial posts on social media platform X.

Selkis announced his resignation on Friday, stating that his recent political rhetoric had put the Messari team “in harm’s way” for the first time in the company’s 6.5-year history.

Selkis has said he will transition to a senior adviser role focusing on long-term strategy for Messari. A day before Selkis announced his resignation, Molly White, a prominent critic of the crypto industry, collected some of the tweets in a thread, while a profile characterizing his political turns made rounds among crypto journalists and the community.

The former CEO’s social media activity escalated after the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. Selkis posted that anyone voting against Trump “can die in a f*cking fire” and called for “literal war.” He later wrote about the need to “excise the metastatic cancer and evil of the left, by force if necessary.”

Selkis also faced criticism for telling a green card holder on X, “I hope we send you back,” during an online exchange. He later claimed this comment was taken out of context from a longer thread.

“This is something that makes sense for him, makes sense for the company,” Messari’s Chief Revenue Officer Eric Turner said in an interview. “As always, Ryan’s Twitter and public persona is not representative of Messari […] for us internally at the company, we are operating business as usual.”

In the wake of the controversy, Messari leadership held what Selkis described as a “tough love” session with him. The company announced that Turner will serve as interim CEO while Selkis steps back from operational duties.

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