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

Author: Ben Weiss

Translation: Golem, Odaily Star Daily

Ryan Selkis seems to enjoy provoking controversy. The CEO of the cryptocurrency analysis company Messari has publicly referred to Silicon Valley bigwigs Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Ron Conway as "old rogues"; criticized his country's leaders as cowards; challenged Democratic supporters of cryptocurrency, and also billionaires, such as Mark Cuban, to a showdown; launched the most vicious verbal attacks on SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, calling him a fraud, sycophant, failure, and anti-socialist, among other things; and, at the end of April, stated, "This government and its agents should be severely condemned."

Some practitioners in the cryptocurrency industry may feel resentful or even opposed to his behavior. For example, the founder of Mask stated that he would cease all potential transactions with Messari and refrain from participating in any of their activities, and would also advise partners and portfolio companies to think twice before working with Messari.

So why does Ryan Selkis repeatedly make such extreme statements on public social media and staunchly support Trump? This article is based on an interview with Ryan Selkis by DL News reporter at the end of June, and has been translated by Odaily Star 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 the trend of the cryptocurrency industry leaning towards Trump.

Broad Network and Influence

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

He drafted a plan to bring attention to cryptocurrencies in the 2024 election and help strengthen FairShake, a super PAC that has raised nearly $180 million to support cryptocurrency industry candidates.

He has a broad network and deep connections with many celebrities in the cryptocurrency 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. Selkis's business has also attracted attention from Wall Street, with Point 72 Ventures led by hedge fund billionaire and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen being an investor in Messari.

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

"My rhetoric has been escalating over the past six months," Selkis said in the interview, and he insists that his insults are a form of retaliation, not "preemptive strikes."

Selkis's main targets for attack are still the SEC, which has increased its litigation against cryptocurrency companies since the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX in November 2022.

Selkis stated that although he voted for Biden in 2020, he has always considered the SEC to be his enemy, and Trump seems to have become an ally—this political shift also reflects the industry's general tilt towards Trump.

However, Selkis's sometimes overly aggressive hostile language and insults have also left many people puzzled.

Billionaire Mark Cuban complained, "I don't know what's wrong with Selkis." Selkis 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 secretly undermining the Messari team.

Continued Extreme Behavior Sparks Discontent

Selkis's public extreme rhetoric has left some employees puzzled.

One former employee said that he tried to promote industry development by aggressively promoting his views, but his approach was destructive. Another interviewed employee said that he had been joking for about seven years, and although his recent online rhetoric has become more aggressive.

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

Bald, bearded, and robust, Selkis lives with his wife and four children in a five-bedroom house in the suburbs of Baltimore. He holds a bachelor's degree from Boston College, and his cryptocurrency company is valued at $3 billion in its latest round of financing.

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

By Any Means Necessary, Until Death

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 "PLAY HARD, ATTACK LIFE" on the signature.

The 6-foot-5-inch CEO looks like a typical cryptocurrency enthusiast. His username on X is "twobitidiot," and he often posts about drinking IPA beer. In conversation, Selkis is cautious but still a bit crazy.

"I think I'm doing well online," Selkis joked.

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 his cryptocurrency analysis company Messari, which he co-founded in 2018.

Selkis said in the interview that his public image is "foolish like a fox." "I can be any character or wear any mask in public when needed, but I won't change in private."

Reasons for Toppling the SEC

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

He opposes regulatory agencies because he believes their actions are dishonest. The agency does not view cryptocurrencies as a new asset class worthy of proprietary legislation, but is committed to regulating them in the same way as the stock market.

Since 2018, the SEC has regularly filed lawsuits against companies in the cryptocurrency industry (in fact, this happened during Trump's term). In 2023, the agency intensified its crackdown, targeting some leading companies in the industry, including Coinbase and Binance. If the SEC wins the lawsuits, token issuers will have to register and bear the burden of regular financial disclosure like companies issuing stocks.

This is unfavorable for Messari.

Selkis compares the importance of Messari to EDGAR, which is an online database where companies submit financial documents to the SEC. Clients rely on Messari to provide in-depth reports on blockchain ecosystems like Solana, as well as data on cryptocurrency prices and the amount of funds raised by cryptocurrency startups. He says that the fate of Messari is directly related to the rise and fall of the cryptocurrency industry; if cryptocurrencies go to zero, the demand for analysis will also disappear.

Selkis 2024: Launching the Cryptocurrency Political Machine

Therefore, Selkis has been seeking the help of 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 cryptocurrencies. With recent donations to Trump, this figure now approaches $200,000. He even considered entering politics himself.

In September 2021, he announced plans to run for U.S. Senate and wrote on X in a later deleted post, "Selkis 2024, it's time to launch the cryptocurrency political machine," but he ultimately backed out because he believed he couldn't win in the blue state (New York, Massachusetts, or Maryland, Democratic strongholds) where he resides.

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

Shift to Supporting Trump

In February 2023, after meeting with Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, and other prominent figures in the cryptocurrency field, Selkis drafted the Leonidas plan—a plan involving large-scale fundraising from industry executives to support cryptocurrency activities. But he eventually brought his network into the existing FairShake and merged the operations of the Digital Freedom Alliance under this super PAC's banner. By December of that year, Armstrong and other wealthy members of the cryptocurrency elite had contributed $80 million to this cause.

At that time, Selkis said he had handed over the daily operations of FairShake to political consultants and told his wife and team that he would step away from politics next year, but he didn't stay away for long.

In January of this year, pharmaceutical executive and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy ended his run for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsed Trump. Ramaswamy was Selkis's choice for president, but Selkis quickly threw his support behind Trump as well. Selkis is a "right-leaning libertarian" who initially found Trump's dramatic entrance into the White House distasteful.

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

He did some basic math. According to CoinGecko's data, the total value of cryptocurrencies increased fivefold during Trump's presidency from 2017 to early 2021, reaching $1 trillion. He said that for most of Biden's term, the market was relatively stable. Although the market value of cryptocurrencies hit a historic high of $3 trillion in November 2021, it stabilized at $2.5 trillion after a severe contraction in 2022.

"Data doesn't lie," Selkis said firmly.

Deciding to Speak Out

Initially, Selkis planned to privately support Trump rather than publicly. The cryptocurrency industry has long been in line with Trump-style politics, and business leaders are usually right-leaning. Selkis acknowledged this, but he was concerned that openly supporting Trump would provoke opposition.

"You have to take risks and speak out," Selkis said in the interview.

Selkis liked Trump's long-standing promises to reduce the size of the federal government and cut the "deep state" in Washington. (Note: During the Trump era, right-wing populist forces called for draining the swamp in Washington, and their scathing criticism of the so-called "deep state" left a deep impression.)

Selkis hoped for less government intervention and more freedom for "builders and creators."

Despite Trump being convicted of 34 felonies in June for falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Selkis considered it a "political farce."

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

Fanaticism for Trump

Selkis deleted his historical records on the X platform before the end of April, but by that time, his statements had become more pronounced. He posted that "we only have one chance: to ensure that President Trump fights the deep state during his term and appoints libertarian-leaning cabinet members."

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

He revealed that he did attract attention, but he refused to disclose who in Trump's camp he had contacted (Trump's campaign team did not respond to requests for comment).

In May, Selkis believed that public support for Trump among cryptocurrency enthusiasts had reached a turning point, and he flew to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to attend a gathering of Trump NFT holders.

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

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

Selkis said, "It's hard to deny the impact I have on changing the situation," but the Winklevoss brothers and Powell did not respond to whether Selkis's rhetoric encouraged them to publicly support Trump.

"Genius Unifier"

Since May, Selkis's online statements have become more extreme, and he has posted that he is the Thanos of the cryptocurrency industry, a genius unifier.

Analyzing his X account, from mid-June to July, he averaged 117 posts per day, usually tweeting between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Eastern Time.

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

Selkis said in early July that he was reducing his posts, but after the July 13th incident where Trump was attacked, the situation changed.

"Many people are pretending to be angry," he posted, "I can't live normally now, I am consumed by anger."

Clearly, he can never leave social media.

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