a16z crypto, the crypto arm of venture capital giant Andreesen Horowitz, announced it has raised $515 million for its second crypto fund, surpassing its initial goal of $450 million. The funds are to be deployed in both native tokens of crypto networks and equity in crypto-based businesses. In the post, the firm stated its areas of focus are next-generation payments, modern store of value, DeFi, new ways for creators to monetize, and web3.
Why it matters
- Through its first fund, a16z has invested in over twenty leading crypto protocols and businesses. With this fresh round of capital, they will be able to provide numerous other teams with the necessary capital to continue to grow.
- To put the fund size in perspective, the market cap of all crypto networks ex. Bitcoin and stablecoins is just over $70 billion. This puts the crypto fund at around 0.70% of the total size. While it won’t all be deployed into crypto assets, a large portion likely will which means a16z will continue to have significant influence over much of the ecosystem, particularly where on-chain governance exists.