Andreessen Horowitz launches $2.2 billion crypto fund

The multibillion-dollar fund is poised to invest in what it’s hoping will be an ecosystem as influential and volatile as the internet

The plans for the Silicon Valley venture capital firm will be strategically financing various digital asset and blockchain start-ups. The firm’s founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz announced their plans earlier this week.

Katie Haun and Chris Dixon, the partners who run Adreessen’s cryptocurrency group, said that “the size of this fund speaks to the size of the opportunity before us: crypto is not only the future of finance but, as with the internet in the early days, is poised to transform all aspects of our lives.”

Who are they?

Launched during the “crypto winter”, the company’s first crypto-focused fund went through an 80% decrease in the value of bitcoin. Coincidentally, bitcoin is seeing similar movements today.

Haun is a former Justice Department prosecutor and helped launch the first government task force for crypto and worked on the first high-profile cryptocurrency-related case, Silk Road. Dixon founded and ran two start-ups before joining Andreessen Horowitz.

Apart from them, Horowitz has also hired Rachael Horowitz as an operating partner, who has led communications at the “big three” tech companies Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as Bill Hinman, the former Securities and Exchange Director, as an advisory partner.

Fortune favours the bold

It’s been a painful few months for bitcoin as its value has been crumbling significantly. This did not move the duo as they insist that “prices may fluctuate but innovation continues to increase through each cycle”.

“We believe that the next wave of computing innovation will be driven by crypto,” the partners wrote, adding that they’re “radically optimistic about crypto’s potential.”

The company made a name for itself with winning investments in the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Lyft and Pinterest. Coinbase was also on Horowitz’s radar in 2013, although even that has crumbled 50% since it went public earlier this year.

Other companies projects backed by the investor include Diem, Facebook’s rebranded version of Libra, OpeanSea and Dapper Labs. They have stated that they will be seeing these investments out long-term.

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