a16z crypto introduced a brand new $2.2 billion fund in a weblog submit laying out its imaginative and prescient for the way forward for cryptocurrencies, from a “new monetary system” to warnings about “opaque” AI. That is the corporate’s fifth fund, bringing its whole raised up to now to $9.8 billion.
Moreover, the fund promoted CTO Eddie Lazarin to basic accomplice, bringing the GP funding crew to 4 individuals. Lazarin joins Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya and Man Woollett. The fund has backed notable corporations corresponding to Coinbase, Kalshi, and Solana Basis.
The timing of this information is a bit ironic, because it comes at a time when crypto buying and selling is extraordinarily depressed, the identical day Coinbase introduced it might lay off 14% of its workforce. In accordance with a report by crypto knowledge and information web site CoinGecko, March was the month with the bottom buying and selling quantity throughout crypto exchanges since November 2023.
VC funding in cryptocurrency startups has additionally cooled, reaching almost $5 billion within the first quarter of 2026, in comparison with almost $6 billion in the identical interval final 12 months, DLNews reported, citing statistics from cryptocurrency knowledge web site DefiLlama.
a16z crypto companions acknowledge this. They describe how excessive crypto costs are attracting funding and startup enthusiasm, however write that “we are actually in one of many quieter intervals.” However they argue that a lot of what’s constructed throughout downtime is “sometimes extra helpful than what we noticed through the peak and extra sturdy than what we noticed through the trough.”
No matter whether or not the market is scorching or not, VC funding exists for blockchain-related startups that may appeal to VCs. What founders have to beat is that among the largest crypto VCs are actually being seduced by AI startups. That is an space the place valuations are skyrocketing.
For instance, Paradigm, one of many largest and most prestigious crypto funds, is engaged on elevating $1.5 billion in new funding to broaden its themes into robotics and AI, the Wall Road Journal reported in February. Moreover, Y Combinator, which has produced many cryptocurrency and blockchain startups through the years, did not ask for something in its newest “requests for startups” checklist.
Earlier this week, former Andreessen Horowitz investor Katie Horn introduced that her crypto agency Haun had additionally raised $1 billion in new funding to proceed investing out there. However she can be searching for AI agent applied sciences that intersect with cryptocurrencies/blockchain and fintech.
The most recent a16z crypto fund will not be seduced by hotter markets, a spokesperson informed bookmydollar, promising to be “100% devoted to crypto entrepreneurs.”
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