In a weblog publish that lays out a imaginative and prescient for crypto’s future, starting from a “new financial system” to warnings about “opaque” AI, a16z crypto introduced a new $2.2 billion fund. This is the VC agency’s fifth fund and brings the full raised thus far to $9.8 billion, it says.
In addition, the fund additionally promoted its CTO, Eddy Lazzarin, to normal associate, bringing the GP investing group to 4 folks. Lazzarin joins Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya, and Guy Wuollet. The fund has backed standout firms like Coinbase, Kalshi, and Solana Foundation.
The timing of this information is a bit ironic, with crypto buying and selling in such a gradual interval that Coinbase introduced on the identical day it was shedding 14% of its workforce. March was the slowest trading-volume month throughout crypto exchanges since November 2023, crypto information and information web site CoinGecko reported.
VC investing in crypto startups has cooled, too, touchdown at almost $5 billion within the first quarter of 2026, in comparison with nearer to $6 billion within the year-ago quarter, stories DLNews, citing stats from crypto information web site DefiLlama.
The a16z crypto companions acknowledge this. They describe how crypto highs attract funding and a fervor of startups, however that “we’re at one of those quieter moments now,” they write. However, they insist that a lot of what will get constructed throughout a downtime “is usually more useful than it looked at the peak, and more durable than it looked at the trough.”
Hot market or not, there’s VC cash on the market for blockchain-related startups that may woo VCs. The half founders must overcome is that a number of the greatest crypto VCs at the moment are being seduced by AI startups. This is an space swimming in rising valuations.
For occasion, Paradigm, one of many greatest and most prestigious crypto funds, is reportedly engaged on elevating a contemporary $1.5 billion fund to develop its thesis into robotics and AI, The Wall Street Journal reported in February. Plus, Y Combinator, which has cranked out many crypto and blockchain-related startups over time, didn’t ask for any in its most up-to-date “Requests for Startups” listing.
Earlier this week, former Andreessen Horowitz investor Katie Haun introduced that her crypto-focused agency, Haun, has additionally raised a new $1 billion fund and can proceed to take a position on this market. But she’s additionally searching for AI agent tech because it intersects with crypto/blockchain and fintech.
The newest a16z crypto fund won’t be lured away by hotter markets, a spokesperson tells Ztoog, promising that will probably be “dedicated 100% to crypto entrepreneurs.”
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