Especially if the crypto space has grown so much in such a short period of time, it still faces the existential threat of aggressive regulation from US agencies, even in the midst of a blockbuster year. While everything has been going on, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has been hard at work building out a substantial crypto arm to ensure that the firm remains an institutional powerhouse in the field of cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, and broader “Web3” technologies for years to come.
Its early network of investors is responsible for many of the crypto world’s early success stories, but the company has broader plans. General Partner Katie Haun, who was previously a federal prosecutor tasked with fighting fraud and cybercrime alongside key government agencies, is leading the firm’s work in this area.
We’re looking forward to having Haun join us at TechCrunch Disrupt this year (September 21-23), where we’ll be interviewing her about crypto regulation and the firm’s new $2.2 billion crypto fund.
Aside from the firm’s aggressive fund sizes and quick deal-making in the crypto industry, the firm’s partners, particularly Haun, have been among the most vocal about the blockchain’s and cryptocurrencies’ potential revolutionary nature. This has garnered increasing attention in 2021, as currencies have risen, fallen, and risen again, creating a growing number of crypto millionaires while drawing in retail investors eager to get a piece of the action.
It’s also been a year of diversification in the crypto world, with decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) gaining traction, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) gaining traction, and decentralized finance (DeFi) threatening to upend financial institutions. Haun is a member of the Coinbase and OpenSea boards of directors. In the ever-shifting and ever-surging world of NFTs, Coinbase went public this year and delivered one of the firm’s largest payouts ever, while OpenSea is the leading platform. On their path to crypto stardom, both organizations are dealing with problems.
Coinbase announced earlier this month that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to sue it over the company’s future lending feature. Meanwhile, OpenSea is dealing with the resignation of a high-profile executive who was caught trading NFTs with business secrets. It’s a contentious field with a lot of money to be earned, and Andreesen Horowitz has a lot of it.
We’re excited to meet with Haun, as well as a slew of other incredible speakers at Disrupt, including Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, actor-entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds, and US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
