Ryan Selkis, the head boss at Messari, went on a wild Twitter ride. Can you imagine when the CEO of some major crypto company just loses it online like that? The second Trump almost got assassinated, Selkis began posting some pretty intense stuff related to civil war and fighting against the "left". Did he forget he's supposed to be a professional or something?
I got to say, I'm not impressed with how he handled the thing. He told people to be violent and that people who don't support Trump should "die in a fire." Too far. Not to even mention the anti-immigrant comment; I believe leaders in the crypto world should behave more responsibly.
The real kicker here is how this kind of behavior may impact Messari as an organization. They have deep-pocketed investors like Galaxy Digital; I can't begin to imagine those investors being not too happy about their CEO losing his mind on Twitter. It makes me wonder if there might be some behind-the-scenes drama we're not seeing.
It's funny: Selkis apparently had a "talking-to" with the leadership of Messari. Good they stepped in, but boy, do I have to question why it took so long. His posts were right there out in the open for everybody to read, probably damaging the company reputation with every tweet.
On my pulse, the entire incident begs some larger questions about the crypto industry. There seems to be a kind of cowboy mentality where some leaders think that they can say anything and get away with it. If crypto is going to be accepted more into the mainstream, I think we need to see more professionalism from the top.
I'm also concerned by the political aspect of all this. Selkis has been working hard to increase crypto's influence in Washington, and outbursts like this have the potential to seriously hurt those efforts. Politicians could be less likely to take the industry seriously if its prominent figures are posting inflammatory content online.
Now, looking forward, I do wonder how Selkis is going to handle this fallout. He has promised a full onus, but I am highly skeptical that he will ever actually change his behavior. The crypto world moves fast. People have short memories. But I think this incident might stick around for a while.
In summary, I think that the whole saga has served as a rude awakening regarding the crypto industry. Its entire ecosystem requires leadership that can maintain its cool even in tense political times. The stakes are too high to have CEOs knocking out angry tweets without thinking about repercussions. It's time for us to grow up a little, in my opinion.