Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of cryptocurrency startup Blockworks, told CNBC that the company plans to use previously undisclosed funding to acquire several competitors and become the Morningstar of the digital assets space.
The company aims to build a data platform tailored for on-chain asset traders, including assets such as cryptocurrencies and digital representations of stocks, commodities, and real-world assets on the blockchain. Its goal is to become a hub for high-quality tools that have long benefited stock and bond traders but have so far been difficult for cryptocurrency traders to access.
“We are significantly behind in terms of data, research, and information on digital assets,” Yanovitz said. “In traditional finance, there are Morningstar… as well as institutions like FactSet… and Moody’s and S&P Global Research.”
He added, "These mechanisms do not currently exist for assets that are about to be launched on-chain."
To realize this vision, the company plans to use funds raised in its A-round, completed earlier this year, to acquire several competitors. This round was co-led by ParaFi Capital and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from Coinbase’s venture arm, bringing Blockworks’ post-money valuation to $192 million.
Yanowitz declined to disclose the specific amount of this funding round. The founder also declined to reveal Blockworks’ exact revenue figures, but stated that the company’s annual recurring revenue grew by more than 500% last year and is “still growing rapidly.”
Part of these earnings comes from Blockworks' events business, which hosts the popular institutional crypto conference called the Digital Assets Summit.
Large cryptocurrency industry
For over a decade, crypto-native companies have been competing to scrape, clean, aggregate, and distribute blockchain data, selling it to traders who use it to track price movements, time trades, reduce risk, and more.
According to Yanovitz, the massive cryptocurrency data industry—potentially worth billions of dollars—has yet to produce a true leader. As a result, retail and institutional traders of on-chain assets must rely on a variety of tools and services from numerous data providers to make informed buying and selling decisions, which is both inconvenient and costly.
This is a pain point that could hinder people from trading digital assets, thereby impeding market growth at a time when the digital asset market is more dynamic than ever.
Over the past two years, the U.S. regulatory and legislative stance toward tokenized assets has become increasingly favorable, driving the growth of the cryptocurrency market. In 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the trading of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, expanding access to the cryptocurrency market for both institutional and retail traders. In 2025, Trump signed the Genius Act, which was enacted into law, establishing a crucial legislative framework for stablecoins.
Increase cryptocurrency adoption through data access
Yanowitz said that although the cryptocurrency market has matured, many data providers serving it have not.
“Throughout history, every asset class has required reliable data, channels for communication between companies and investors, and mechanisms to enforce disclosure by issuers,” said Arnovitz. “In traditional markets, these infrastructures are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In the cryptocurrency space, they almost entirely lack.”
However, this executive hopes his company can address the barriers hindering the broader adoption of alternative assets.
“There are trust issues with cryptocurrency, and they’re bidirectional,” Yanovitz said. “Companies haven’t worked to earn the trust of institutions, and investors lack the necessary information to evaluate these assets. We’re here to solve both of these problems.”