Blockworks

What It Is

Blockworks is a crypto media, research, and data company headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2018 by Jason Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito, it began as an events business connecting institutional investors to the emerging blockchain industry and has since grown into one of the most recognized professional media brands in digital assets. The company bills itself as building "the backbone of crypto information," spanning journalism, podcasts, primary research, conferences, a proprietary data API, and investor relations infrastructure.

By 2025 Blockworks employed approximately 163 people and was on track to exceed $30 million in annual revenue, with its newest data services business emerging as the primary growth driver. A $12 million Series A round led by 10T Holdings in May 2023 — valuing the firm at roughly $135 million — funded its expansion into institutional research and events. A subsequent funding round was announced in April 2026, according to Tracxn data.

Products and Services

Blockworks News

The flagship editorial operation is a professional news platform covering digital assets, macro markets, DeFi, regulation, and blockchain infrastructure. A fifteen-person editorial team produces daily reporting and analysis aimed at investors, traders, and industry professionals who need reliable, context-rich coverage rather than retail-oriented price commentary.

Blockworks Research

Launched in 2022, Blockworks Research publishes institutional-grade reports, governance analyses, and protocol assessments authored by specialized analysts. The product targets professional allocators — hedge funds, venture firms, and sovereign wealth vehicles — that need investment-committee-ready analysis on blockchain protocols. Blockworks also developed an open-source Token Transparency Framework and submitted it to the SEC as a proposed voluntary disclosure standard for crypto issuers, positioning the company as an active participant in regulatory standard-setting.

Podcasts

Blockworks operates a network of crypto podcasts that collectively drew 21 million downloads in a recent twelve-month period. The most prominent is Empire, a twice-weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with founders and a Friday market roundup that has released more than 665 episodes since launching in February 2021. In 2024 Blockworks acquired The Breakdown, a widely followed macro and crypto commentary podcast, and The Drop, an NFT-focused media property, further broadening its content footprint.

Newsletters

The Empire Newsletter is closely tied to the podcast and provides written analysis and market insights on a regular cadence, with more than 370 associated articles in the archive. Additional newsletters serve different segments of the Blockworks audience.

Digital Asset Summit (DAS)

DAS is Blockworks' flagship annual conference, focused on the institutional adoption of digital assets. The event draws speakers from finance, policy, and blockchain, including economists, fund managers, and political figures. It has become a recognized venue for deal-making and high-level discussion among institutional market participants.

Data API and Investor Relations Software

In recent years Blockworks built out a data services business offering an API integration and investor relations software for crypto market participants. Priced at $4,500 per year (raised from $2,500 after strong early demand), the data product emphasizes "practical tools based on real-world financial and user activity" — a deliberate contrast to on-chain metrics that co-founder Jason Yanowitz has described as highly gameable. The service targets hedge funds, venture firms, and sovereign wealth funds that want underlying analytical rigor before allocating to token positions.

Lightspeed IR: Solana Ecosystem Integration

In December 2025 Blockworks and the Solana Foundation jointly launched Lightspeed IR, described as the first institutional-grade investor relations platform purpose-built for crypto. Solana was selected as the launch ecosystem because of its position at the intersection of crypto-native adoption and institutional readiness — meaningful real-world revenue, a mature founder base, and genuine institutional interest, combined with an information fragmentation problem that Blockworks' infrastructure was designed to solve.

Lightspeed IR bundles three layers of intelligence for institutional allocators and Solana-ecosystem token issuers:

1. High-fidelity on-chain data on the Solana network, powered by Blockworks' proprietary data infrastructure.
2. Institutional research that translates raw on-chain activity into fundamental metrics and investment-committee-ready memos.
3. Ecosystem intelligence including roadmap updates, key performance indicator packs, governance developments, and direct communication channels between Solana project teams and institutional allocators.

The motivation was stated plainly by Blockworks Head of Advisory David Rodriguez: "Institutions want to buy these tokens, but the industry makes it too hard for them." Lightspeed IR is designed to close that information gap. The platform went live in Q1 2026.

Team

Blockworks was co-founded by Jason Yanowitz (CEO) and Michael Ippolito. Yanowitz has been the primary public voice on the company's data and institutional strategy. The company operates with roughly 163 employees across editorial, research, events, product, and advisory functions.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Blockworks occupies a unique position in the Solana ecosystem as an information infrastructure provider rather than a protocol or application. Its significance is twofold. First, it serves as one of the most credible independent information sources covering Solana through its news operation, podcast content, and Blockworks Research reports — giving institutional investors a vetted lens on network developments, governance, and tokenomics. Second, through Lightspeed IR, it has become directly embedded in the Solana Foundation's institutional outreach strategy, offering allocators the on-chain data, research translation, and project-direct communications needed to build conviction.

This dual role — independent editorial coverage plus dedicated infrastructure for institutional Solana engagement — makes Blockworks one of the more consequential off-chain stakeholders in the network's effort to capture serious institutional capital at scale.

Audits and Compliance

As a media and data company, Blockworks does not publish on-chain smart contracts and does not undergo the protocol security audits typical of DeFi applications. Its compliance-oriented work centers on the Token Transparency Framework, an open-source voluntary disclosure standard for token issuers that the company submitted to the SEC, reflecting an effort to bring traditional investor-relations norms into the crypto industry.