- Former Messari CEO Ryan Selkis is a political firebrand.
- Eric Turner, the company’s new CEO, isn’t.
- His appointment marks a rhetorical about-face in the company’s leadership.
Ryan Selkis, the former CEO of crypto analytics firm Messari, loves to talk politics.
His replacement? Not so much.
“I am going to avoid any politics publicly,” Eric Turner, Messari’s new CEO, told DL News. “I’m not really a very political person to begin with.”
Previously Messari’s chief revenue officer, he declined to say whether he supports former President Donald Trump or a Democratic presidential candidate.
“I’m pretty down the middle most of the time,” Turner said of his political leanings.
The rhetorical shift of Messari’s new frontman comes as the company, reportedly valued at $300 million as of its last fundraising round, tries to put Selkis’ resignation behind it, along with the wave of scrutiny that accompanied the former CEO’s bellicose support of Trump.
“Messari is an apolitical organisation,” Turner said.
Selkis runs red hot
Selkis, Turner’s predecessor, is one of crypto’s more influential movers and shakers.
He has more than 350,000 followers on X and has played a key role in raising campaign funds for pro-crypto politicians.
In recent months, his rhetoric grew more combative as he became one of crypto’s most vocal Trump supporters.
And after Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13, he ran red hot.
“Anyone that votes against Trump at this point can die in a fucking fire,” Selkis said on X in a since-deleted post shortly after the shooting. “Literal war.”
Selkis pushed back against media depictions of his aggressive rhetoric in a staff memo, which DL News reviewed, sent on the day of his resignation
“We were an inch from Civil War, and I responded hyperbolically, but never threatened violence,” he wrote.
Less than a week after the assassination attempt, he got into a back-and-forth with another user on X who holds a green card, a US residency permit.
“I hope we send you back,” Selkis told him.
The former Messari CEO quickly came under fire, and the next day he resigned as CEO.
“This week was the first week in 6.5 years that my politics and rhetoric put the team in harm’s way,” Selkis told DL News, adding later that he apologised to the X user.
‘Softer touch’
Turner, the new CEO, said that it was ultimately Selkis’ decision to step down, along with “input from the leadership team, from the board.”
He declined to provide further details about the decision, and said he’s focused on Messari’s six-month roadmap and its deals with large customers.
“You will see probably 100% crypto or Messari-related content from me, be it in interviews on Twitter, podcasts, wherever,” he said.
As opposed to Selkis, who has an extensive history of political donations, Turner has only donated to two candidates, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission: Aarika Rhodes, a 2022 pro-crypto Democrat congressional candidate in California, and Representative Dan Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York.
“While Eric is coming behind Selkis, at least in the interim, he is not Selkis,” a former employee told DL News. “Eric has a softer touch.”
And if his previous posts on X are any indication, he’s not nearly as keyed in on political minutiae.
“Maybe I’m out of the loop because I don’t pay attention to politics,” Turner posted during the recent debate between Trump and current President Joe Biden, “but have previous debates had so many weird rules?”
Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.
