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Ryan Selkis Quits as Messari CEO Following Inflammatory Tweets

"This week was the first week in 6.5 years that my politics and rhetoric put the team in [harm's] way," he wrote. "As such, I have decided to step aside as CEO."

Updated Jul 19, 2024, 4:49 p.m. Published Jul 19, 2024, 3:11 p.m.

Messari's Ryan Selkis (Suzanne Cordiero/Shutterstock for CoinDesk's Consensus)

Ryan Selkis stepped down as CEO of Messari, the crypto data and research firm he co-founded, following a series of inflammatory tweets about politics, civil war and his desire for an immigrant to get expelled from the country.

He announced his departure Friday on X, the social media platform where he pumped out a flood of controversial messages this week.

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"This week was the first week in 6.5 years that my politics and rhetoric put the team in [harm's] way," he wrote. "As such, I have decided to step aside as CEO."

A leader's first responsibility is to his team.

This week was the first week in 6.5 years that my politics and rhetoric put the team in harms way.

As such, I have decided to step aside as CEO.

My friend, colleague, and founding teammate @ericturnr will be taking the helm. pic.twitter.com/6icM6efMUu
— Ryan Selkis (d/acc) 🇺🇸 (@twobitidiot) July 19, 2024

Never a stranger to launching insults on X, he amped up his comments after last weekend's assassination attempt on Donald Trump. "Anyone that votes against Trump at this point can die in a f*cking fire," he posted on X the afternoon of the shooting. "Literal war."

He also told an immigrant via X: "I hope we send you back. ... You are not entitled to citizenship. I hope it stays that way."

On Friday, as he announced his resignation, Selkis said that following the attempt on Trump's life, he had "been disgusted at the media and administration's abject failures at pressing for answers in the attack's aftermath, as well as their failure to tamp down divisive rhetoric that contributed to the attack in the first place."

In addition to building Messari, Selkis laid much of the groundwork for the crypto industry's political fundraising in the U.S. this year. He is a former CEO of CoinDesk.

A decade ago, as an independent blogger, Selkis published documents revealing the insolvency of Mt. Gox, the crypto exchange that later went bankrupt.

Messari said Friday that Chief Revenue Officer Eric Turner will serve as interim CEO. "Ryan recently let us know of his decision to step back from an operational role as the CEO of Messari so that he can focus his time fully on crypto policy and national issues of importance to him," the company posted on X.

Ryan recently let us know of his decision to step back from an operational role as the CEO of Messari so that he can focus his time fully on crypto policy and national issues of importance to him. Messari would not be the company it is today, or what it will be in the future,…
— Messari (@MessariCrypto) July 19, 2024

Selkis was back tweeting about "national issues of importance to him" right after quitting.

"I beat @JoeBiden. Again," he wrote.

Marc Hochstein contributed to this story.

UPDATE (July 19, 2024, 15:52 UTC): Adds another tweet from Ryan Selkis.

UPDATE (July 19, 2024, 16:41 UTC): Adds background on Ryan Selkis.

Ryan Selkis Messari Management

Nick Baker

Nick Baker was CoinDesk's deputy editor-in-chief. He won a Loeb Award for editing CoinDesk's coverage of FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, including Ian Allison's scoop that caused SBF's empire to collapse. Before joining in 2022, he worked at Bloomberg News for 16 years as a reporter, editor and manager. Previously, he was a reporter at Dow Jones Newswires, wrote for The Wall Street Journal and earned a journalism degree from Ohio University. He owns more than $1,000 of BTC and SOL.