The expansion came following a “productive dialogue” with the U.K. Prime Minister and “months of constructive conversations” with UK policymakers, a16z’s general partner said.
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Decentralized knowledge protocol Golden has closed a $40 million funding round led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, with additional participation from Protocol Labs, OpenSea Ventures and the founders of Solana, Dropbox, Postmates and Twitch, among others. In addition to leading the Series B funding round, Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner Ali Yahya will join Golden’s board alongside a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen. The funding gives Golden additional resources to continue building its protocol, which is designed to standardize the discovery and verification of knowledge in the era of Web3. Specifically, Golden is developing a decentralized interface that incentivizes collecting and verifying canonical data. The company claims that over 35,000 users participated in early testnet phases of the protocol. Related: Microsoft, Avalanche, Polygon join $20M funding of Web3 automation startupWhile venture financing for the crypto industry has slowed recently, 2022 has seen record inflows for blockchain-focused startups. Recently, hedge fund Pantera Capital upped the ante by disclosing plans to raise $1.25 billion for its second blockchain fund. Projects specializing in Web3, which refers to some future iteration of the internet, have attracted outsized interest from the venture capital community. [embedded content]In describing its product, Golden said that incorporating Web3 technologies is “well suited to solve the core problems” of incentivization. Golden plans to use native tokens for rewarding ‘good actors” but also specified that the final product is “not simply ‘Web3 Wikipedia’.” The mainnet is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2023.
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Billionaire tech entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, Marc Andreessen says that Web3 and its underlying blockchain technology reminds him of the rise of the early internet. Andreessen, better known today as the co-founder of the blockchain-focused venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), originally found success by developing the first widely used web browser called Mosaic, and then founded Netscape Navigator which dominated the browser market throughout much of the 1990s. Appearing on the Bankless podcast alongside investment partner and colleague Chris Dixon, Andreessen said that increasing adoption and a flurry of development in Web3 appears remarkably similar to the rush of activity that marked his early years in tech.Andreessen stressed that he would not make this sort of sweeping comparison idly and that it was the first time he’d ever made such a claim.“This is the only time I’ve ever said this [Web3] is like the internet. If you go back through all my historical statements, one could imagine that with my experience I could have said this like 48 times. I’ve never made the comparison before.”“I’ve never said it about any other kind of technology, because I just wanted people to know like I don’t take the comparison lightly.”While the parallels between the adoption path of blockchain-tech and the early internet have often been made by crypto-enthusiasts (to the chagrin of crypto critics), Andreessen’s front line experience lends him unique authority to make such statements. He added that the current Web3 landscape is attracting the world’s smartest people.“The easiest way to think about it is, when you get something like this that has a movement, that has this sort of collective effect and has a movement behind it, and is attracting many of the world’s smartest people to work on it, basically the criticisms play out differently than the critics think.”Pushing back against the “long list” of criticisms leveled at crypto and digital assets, Andreessen said that Web3 entrepreneurs see these “problems” as opportunities. “The critics make this long list of all of the problems, but you’re getting these genius engineers and entrepreneurs [who] flood into the space. What happens is, they look at that list of problems as a list of opportunities”“It’d be like if you had a house project [that] was going sideways and you get all these complaints, and then all of the world’s best architects and master builders showed up the next day to fix your house,” he said. “All of a sudden you’ve got the best house in the world. This can actually happen.”Andreessen said that Web3 is the “missing” link for the internet, bringing trust, sovereignty and financial utility to the ecosystem. “We were…missing trust, authority, permission. We were missing the ability to transact with people for trusted relationships, transact, send money, store money, and then have all the other economic arrangements that the world wants to have [such as] loans and contracts and insurance and all these all these other things.”Previously known for its early investments in Instagram and Slack, a16z first entered the crypto industry with an investment in Coinbase in 2013 and has since backed major cryptocurrency-related businesses, including Polychain Capital, OpenSea, Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Yuga Labs.A week ago it announced the launch of its fourth cryptocurrency fund at $4.5 billion, bringing the total amount of capital invested by Andreessen Horowitz into crypto businesses to just over $7.6 billion.According to a letter penned by Managing Partner Chris Dixon, a16z launched the latest fund to capitalize on what Dixon calls the “golden era” of Web3 development. Related: Binance Labs’ $500M fund to catalyze crypto, Web3, blockchain adoptionAndressen concluded the podcast with a succinct explanation for why a16z is tipping so much money into the industry.“We could actually imagine the entire global economy running on the blockchain like 30 or 50 years from now.”
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Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market have provided very little comfort in recent weeks, as macroeconomic headwinds and the implosion of the Terra ecosystem continue to reverberate. But, if we look beyond the immediate price action, we observe an industry that continues to grow and evolve, as well as attract sizable capital investments from major funders. The latest edition of venture capital (VC) Roundup highlights the continued growth of Web3 gaming, metaverse applications and even decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Related: Crypto Biz: Smart Money is betting big on Web3, layer 2, May 19-25Andreessen Horowitz backs Irreverent LabsBlockchain video game developer Irreverent Labs has raised $40 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to further the development of its immersive play-to-earn game Mecha Fight Club. Andreessen’s general partner Arianna Simpson described the “outlandish” premise of the game in a blog post: “Robotic roosters and hens battle it out in a hilarious combat sport that is part MMA, part Tamagotchi, part Gundam Wing, part Mortal Kombat, with a twist of humor from Family Guy, Monty Python and South Park.”Announcing our fourth crypto fund, totaling $4.5B, to invest in promising web3 startups at every stage. This brings our total crypto/web3 funds raised to over $7.6B.General Partner @cdixon shares more on https://t.co/xIezLlyDiC. https://t.co/Xc696Fu8UT— a16z (@a16z) May 25, 2022Canadian tech education company raises $7M for metaverse engineCoding Bootcamp company Lighthouse Labs recently closed a $7 million seed round to further develop its so-called “open metaverse navigation engine.” The funding round had participation from some of blockchain’s biggest VCs and investors including Accel, BlockTower and Animoca Brands. Lighthouse Labs is developing a platform that allows users to search for places, events and experiences from across the open metaverse. Jonathan Brun, Lighthouse’s co-founder and CEO, said accessing the Metaverse will soon evolve from a gaming experience to one that becomes closer to the web. N3TWORK Studios closes Series ABlockchain games publisher N3TWORK Studios has closed a $46 million Series A funding round to expand its footprint in the Web3 gaming sector. Specifically, the funding will help N3TWORK further develop and launch its first two Web3 titles, Legendary: Heroes Unchained and Triumph. The Series A was led by Griffin Gaming Partners, with additional participation from Galaxy Interactive, Kleiner Perkins, KIP, Floodgate and LLL Capital. Web3, the talk of the town! But what does it really mean, and how does it function?Well, we made just the video for you: https://t.co/5D2NF30JKt pic.twitter.com/zMbp6uUMHH— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 27, 2022
Related: In the Economy 3.0, metaverses will create jobs for millionsGlobal hacker movement gets backing from blockchain VCsDoraHacks, a hacker movement that offers Web3 developer grants, has closed a $20 million funding round led by FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures. Additional investors included Circle Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Crypto.com Capital, Amber Group and Sky9 Capital. DoraHacks will use the funding to launch several initiatives, including decentralized grant community Dora DAO and a new venture fund that will invest in emerging technology startups. DeFi protocol raises $30MDeFi liquidity protocol iZUMi Finance has closed a $30 million funding round to expand its ecosystem and launch a new decentralized exchange on the BNB Chain. Roughly one-third of the funds were raised via bond vouchers on Solv Protocol, a platform that enables the creation of new financial instruments expressed in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Related: What is total value locked (TVL) in crypto and why does it matter?DAO management platform closes funding roundCommon, a community management initiative for decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, has closed a $20 million funding round to expand its platform and further decentralize its operations. Common gives users the ability to create, manage and govern their own blockchain communities. The company claims to have 500 active communities including crypto projects dYdX, Axie Infinity, Solana and Polygon. Explain DAOs in 5 words or less. — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 28, 2022
Centrifuge lands BlockTower partnershipDeFi protocol Centrifuge has partnered with blockchain venture firm BlockTower to accelerate the financialization of real-world assets on-chain. To support this initiative, the partners secured $3 million in treasury token sales from both traditional and crypto investors. The incorporation of real-world assets is considered by many to be an important step in further cementing DeFi’s role in mainstream finance. Centrifuge co-founder Lucas Vogelsang said his firm’s partnership with BlockTower aims to “accelerate the adoption of DeFi in institutional capital.”
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Even though crypto markets appear to be on a long, arduous path ahead based on recent weeks of token turmoil, venture investors looking to get their hands on a Web3 future aren’t slowing down.On Wednesday, venture capital giant, A16Z, announced closing its fourth cryptocurrency fund at $4.5 billion. This brings the total money invested by Andreessen Horowitz in digital currency and blockchain business to more than $7.6 billion.The new investment vehicle will focus on early-stage ideas as well as projects that are more mature and have already shown some traction. According to the firm, $1.5 billion of the funding will be used for seed injections, while $3 billion will be dedicated to venture investments.#Web3 let’s go https://t.co/prjwqLqitt— Nexus Crypto (@nexuscryptoo) May 25, 2022Despite the current market downtown, the firm is optimistic about discovering fresh prospects. Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of A16Z, commented that cryptocurrencies are still in their “early innings,” adding that the market has a lot of growth potential.The fourth crypto fund has been in the works for some time; Cointelegraph first reported on it in January. It doubles the size of the previous crypto fund and demonstrates the growing interest among the firm’s limited partners in boosting their exposure to cryptocurrency firms.The new funding has come less than a year since Andreessen Horowitz announced the launch of its $2.2 billion Crypto Fund III. A16z’s dominance has made waves in the crypto industry throughout recent months, with several crypto native companies like Paradigm and Electric Capital raising enormous sums to compete against it.Related: $3B flows to metaverse and Web3 gaming this month as a16z tips in $600MFormerly known for investments in Instagram and Slack, the firm first entered the crypto sector with an investment in Coinbase in 2013. It has since backed a number of crypto businesses, including Polychain Capital, OpenSea, Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Yuga Labs.
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Crypto-focused venture firm NGC Ventures has launched a new ecosystem fund dedicated to Web3 projects, underscoring heightened investor demand for startups that are contributing to the development of a decentralized internet. NGC Metaverse Ventures, the company’s third blockchain fund, raised $100 million from investors that included Babel Finance, Huobi Ventures, Nexo Ventures, Altonomy and GBIC. The fund will allocate capital towards “high-potential projects” in the Web3 economy, according to Roger Lim, NGC Ventures’ general partner. The Web3 fund has already invested in three startups, NGC disclosed on Wednesday. Based in Singapore, NGC Ventures was founded in 2017 as a blockchain and fintech-focused venture firm. It was an early investor in Solana (SOL), Algorand (ALGO) and Oasis (ROSE), among others. Web3 and metaverse projects have attracted significant interest from the VC community. Since mid-April, venture firms have pledged nearly $3 billion to invest in such projects. Most notably, Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz launched a $600 million fund dedicated to gaming startups within the Web3 economy. Related: VC Roundup: Gaming, crypto fintech and blockchain infrastructure dominate venture capital roundsGoogle is looking for Web3 talent.The Google Cloud division is looking for a ‘Head of Product Marketing’ who will be responsible for raising awareness about Google Cloud’s Web3 initiatives in addition to eventually building customer demand. https://t.co/fdKd31Asue— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 25, 2022The Web3 economy has been a key talking point at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, which is underway in Davos, Switzerland this week. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Polkadot (DOT) founder Gavin Wood said the growth of Web3 has been “encouraging because it means that people are seeing this underlying technology feed into different applications” that go beyond just crypto. 2022 is shaping up to be another record-breaking year for crypto VC. In the first quarter alone, venture firms allocated $14.6 billion, or 48% of all the capital invested in 2021, toward crypto and blockchain startups, according to Cointelegraph Research.
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Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has launched a $600 million fund dedicated to gaming startups with a focus on Web3 saying it believes “games infrastructure and technologies will be key building blocks of the Metaverse.”Dubbed “GAMES FUND ONE” the fund will invest in three main areas: game studios, consumer applications which support player communities with Discord used as an example, and gaming infrastructure providers.The a16z team said “the coming Metaverse will be built by games companies, using games technologies” and that the industry has already “solved many of the problems that need to be solved to create the Metaverse.” It believes games will become the “dominant way people spend time.”The move by a16z marks nearly $3 billion committed by venture funds and gaming industry giants into Web3 gaming or Metaverse projects since mid-April. Venture firm White Star Capital raised $120 million for its decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming focused fund along with a $200 million allocation to blockchain gaming projects by Framework Ventures both taking place in April 2022.Metaverse projects are also gaining massive sums from gaming industry titans. Last month Epic Games, creator of the popular Fortnite title, raised $2 billion to create a metaverse with funding from Sony and LEGO.The team at a16z pointed at the billions of dollars in revenue thatgames such as Minecraft generate, using the open world game as an example of a title that has retained a long-term active community which functions more like a social network. Minecraft is the current all-time highest selling game and has seen 173 million average monthly players over the past 30 days according to figures from game statistics platform ActivePlayer despite it being released almost 11 years ago.Related: There is room for the Metaverse in 2022, but the virtual space is far from perfectThe fund is the first by a16z solely dedicated to games but the firm has backed successful game related projects in the past includingng virtual reality (VR) company Oculus and game developer Zynga saying the investments “cemented our belief that games require a specialized focus.”Joining the fund were founders of game development companies and popular games such as the co-founder of Riot Games Marc Merrill, cofounders Aleks Larsen and Jeffrey Zirlin of Sky Mavis which owns the popular Axie Infinity blockchain game and Kevin Lin, founder of gaming company Metatheory which received $24 million in a funding round led by a16z.
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Crypto venture fund giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has highlighted that development and demand on Ethereum is “unmatched” despite the network’s high transaction fees.The firm does warn, however, that its “popularity is also a double-edged sword” given Ethereum prioritizes decentralization over scaling, resulting in competing blockchains stealing market share with “promises of better performance and lower fees.”The comments came via a blog post introducing a16z’s 2022 “State of Crypto” report, with the firm’s data scientist Daren Matsuoka, head of protocol design and engineering Eddy Lazzarin, General Partner Chris Dixon, and head of content Robert Hackett all working together to provide five key takeaways from the study. Outside of Ethereum, the report focuses on topics such as Web3 development, crypto adoption rates, decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoins. Introducing a16z’s 2022 State of Crypto Report A lot has changed since we started investing in crypto nearly a decade ago. Here are 5 key takeaways from the a16z crypto web3 industry survey and data analysis by @darenmatsuoka, @eddylazzarin, @cdixon & @rhhackett ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/JFLXbNh03u— a16z (@a16z) May 17, 2022According to data from the report, Ethereum towers over the competition in terms of builder interest, as the network has around 4,000 active monthly developers compared to second-ranked Solana (SOL) at 1,000. Bitcoin (BTC) and Cardano (ADA) are next in line at roughly 500 and 400 apiece. The analysts noted that “Ethereum’s lead has much to do with its early start, and, the health of its community” but emphasized the significance of development continuing to surge on the network despite high transaction costs: “Ethereum’s overwhelming mindshare helps explain why its users have been willing to pay more than $15 million in fees per day on average just to use the blockchain — remarkable for such a young project.”The demand for Ethereum can also be seen across the report’s estimated transaction fees paid on a blockchain over a seven-day average (calculated as of May 12), with the data showing that Ethereum accounts for $15.24 million. To provide contrast, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Polygon and Solana account for roughly $2.5 million worth of fees combined.Layer-1 Transaction fees: a16zThe report notes that Layer-2 scaling solutions are fighting to bring Ethereum’s fees down and transaction speeds up, while also pointing out that long-awaited upgrades are coming to Ethereum to make the network more efficient and cost-effective. The “long awaited” upgrades can’t happen soon enough however and a16z also highlighted in the report that over a 30-day average (as of May 12), active addresses and transactions on competing blockchains including Solana, BNB Chain and Polygon are already well ahead of Ethereum. Related: Ethereum analytics firm Nansen acquires DeFi tracker Ape BoardThe data shows that Ethereum has 5.5 million active addresses that account for 1.1 million daily transactions, while Solana has a mammoth 15.4 million active addresses and 15.3 million daily transactions. BNB Chain ranks in third with 9.4 million and 5 million, while Polygon totaled around 2.6 million and 3.4 million. The analysts concluded it won’t be a winner-takes-all situation. “Blockchains are the hit product of a new computing wave, just as PCs and broadband were in the ‘90s and 2000s, and as mobile phones were in the last decade. There’s a lot of room for innovation, and we believe there will be multiple winners.”Other key takeaways from the report included the DeFi sector’s total value locked of roughly $113 billion would make it 31st largest bank in the U.S., estimations that Web3 adoption could hit 1 billion users by 2031 and that NFTs have generated $3.9 billion worth of revenue for creators so far.
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PayPal-backed cryptocurrency firm Talos is becoming the latest unicorn in the industry, reaching a $1.25 billion valuation following new funding.Talos has raised $105 million in Series B funding round led by a major global growth equity firm, General Atlantic, according to an announcement released on May 10.The funding will help Talos extend its institutional-grade digital asset platform as well as accelerate the firm’s expansion into the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.The raise featured major firms in both the traditional finance and the crypto industry, including Ken Fox’s private equity firm Stripes, BNY Mellon, Citi, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, investment firms like DRW and SCB 10x, crypto trading platform Voyager and others.“This investment is the latest example of BNY Mellon’s commitment to the future of digital assets,” BNY Mellon’s global FX head Jason Vitale said. He added that BNY Mellon is among new advisors on Talos’ Strategic Investor Forum working on building institutional solutions for the crypto market.The funding round also involved existing investors from Talos’ $40 Series A round closed in May 2021, including Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Castle Island Ventures, Illuminate, Notation Capital and Initialized Capital.The funding is a major indicator of the growing institutional adoption, Talos co-founder and CEO Anton Katz said:“This funding round represents a major inflection point for the industry. We’ve long heard that ‘the institutions are coming’. The institutions are now here, and we’re extremely proud to be the digital asset trading platform of choice for leading institutions around the world.”Founded in 2018, Talos is an institutional-grade infrastructure technology provider in the cryptocurrency industry, offering services for trading, settlement and others.Related: Philippines’ fintech achieves unicorn status after embracing crypto paymentsAccording to the company’s website, Talos’ partner base covers a wide number of firms in the crypto ecosystem, including multiple exchanges like Binance, Coinbase and FTX, as well as over-the-counter desks and FX platforms. Talos says its institutional trading volumes surged 20x times year-over-year by May 2022.
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Cryptocurrency markets remain caught in a macro-based downtrend, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) showing further signs of weakness at the end of April. But venture capital activity in the crypto and blockchain sectors is the strongest it has ever been, offering further evidence that major investors are looking beyond immediate price action and ignoring divisive bull/bear narratives. The latest edition of VC Roundup highlights the growing excitement surrounding Web3 gaming, decentralized finance and blockchain infrastructure.The first quarter of 2022 was brutal for crypto prices, but venture capital activity was the strongest ever. bloXroute secures $70M from major investorsBlockchain distribution network provider bloXroute has raised $70 million in funding to continue developing scalable infrastructure services for the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) industries. The Series B funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Dragonfly Capital, Jane Street, ParaFi Capital, Blindspot, GSR and others. The company recently launched its Blockchain Distribution Network, which is said to overcome network congestion to provide users with reliable information about buy and sell orders. HBAR Foundation launches $50M fintech innovation fundHedera ecosystem promoter HBAR Foundation has launched a $50 million fund to incentivize Hedera-focused development work around central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, remittance services, micropayments and asset tokenization. The Fintech and Payments Fund is now seeking proposals for these and other finance-based integrations. At the time of writing, Hedera was the 35th most valuable blockchain network with a total market capitalization of $3.2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.Related: HBAR Foundation launches a $250M metaverse fund to enhance consumer brand adoptionCrypto industry heavyweights back decentralized venture studioWeb3 venture studio Decent Labs has partnered with BlockTower Capital, Digital Currency Group and others to launch a new incubator ecosystem called Decent DAO. The backers allocated a combined $10 million in on-chain investments to the initiative at a valuation of $56 million. Decent DAO wants to fix a major problem plaguing many decentralized autonomous organizations — namely, a lack of proper governance and leadership — and has developed a system that ensures all project backers are fully invested in the space. Many believe DAOs are what can help achieve a fair decentralized world. And as they develop more, it is clear that we are just scratching the surface of the potential DAOs have. https://t.co/VqnKfoo3SA— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 28, 2022a16z leads $34M Spruce raiseAndreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, led a $34 million funding round for decentralized identity startup Spruce. The Series A funding round also had participation from Ethereal Ventures, Electric Capital and Y Combinator, among others. Spruce is developing a protocol that lets users control their personal data across the Web2 and Web3 economies. Spruce has also partnered with the Ethereum Foundation to develop a new authentication method for Ethereum accounts and ENS profiles. Gaming industry veterans raise capital for Web3 studioGaming industry professionals formerly of EA, Disney and Epic Games have raised $4 million for Playmint, a new venture studio developing Massively Multiplayer On Chain Games, also known as MMOCG. The seed round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from Ethereal Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Play Ventures and 1kx. Playmint’s first title is called The Crypt, a loot-based dungeon game that’s built on the blockchain.Related: Animoca Brands to bet big on MMORPG blockchain gamesGamerGains closes $5.8M seed round backed by Winklevoss CapitalDeveloper GamerGains Labs has closed a $5.8 million seed round to support the development of a cryptocurrency-based play-and-earn platform. Unlike other crypto-focused developers, GamerGains is building a platform for traditional PC and console gamers, allowing players to earn crypto and token rewards for typical gameplay. The funding round had backing from some of blockchain’s biggest venture studios, including Tiger Global, FTX, Winklevoss Capital, CMS Holdings and BlockFi.While future games may be blockchain-connected, the executives think that they may not fully run on the blockchain. https://t.co/8ppRbVkZcd— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 15, 2022
Blockchain developer Venly raises $23M Belgian technology provider Venly is looking to bring more industries to blockchain and has secured $23 million in Series A investments to further this initiative. The funding round was led by Courtside Ventures with participation from Transcend Fund, Coinbase Ventures, Tioga Capital and others. The company, which develops tools and APIs that allow Web2 companies to utilize Web3 technology, is primarily focused on game publishers and e-commerce businesses. Its API platform has been used by the likes of Shopify and The Sandbox, among others.Related: Crypto Biz: If you think crypto is bearish, you’re not paying attention, April 21–27, 2022Oasis.app secures $6M Series A funding roundDecentralized finance platform Oasis.app has raised funds to continue building its consumer-focused DeFi products and tools. The platform allows DeFi users to connect their crypto wallets and earn yields on their Bitcoin, Ether and other holdings. The funding round, which was secured through a combination of crypto and fiat, was led by Libertus Capital, with additional participation from several angel investors from within the crypto industry.
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Theoretical computer scientist and Columbia University professor Tim Roughgarden has been appointed the head of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) new crypto research unit. Roughgarden’s resume includes more than three years as a professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York, along with a 14-year stint at Stanford. He has also served as a research partner at a16z since February last year. a16z is one of the most active venture capital firms in crypto, with its funds reportedly worth around $9 billion. Partly guided by the firm’s new unit which was announced earlier today, Roughgarden has stated that its funding into crypto research will grow by “many multiples of the next couple of years.”“We’re currently in a particular moment in time, witnessing a new multidisciplinary field (spurred by web3) blossom before our eyes. There are enormous opportunities to shape this field through research and education.”8/ As a research lab within a VC firm, a16z crypto research represents a new funding model for basic research—one that seems obvious in hindsight (with the long-term focus necessary for fundamental research already hard-wired into the firm’s business model).— Tim Roughgarden (@Tim_Roughgarden) April 21, 2022The firm highlighted Roughgarden’s experience in computer science, research and economics, along with his crypto and blockchain course at Columbia as one of the “best and most popular” introductions to crypto online. Roughgarden was one of the first to provide a formal analysis on the fee mechanism for Ethereum’s EIP-1559 upgrade. According to a16z, the research team will form a multidisciplinary lab that will work with the companies in its portfolio and others to solve “the important problems in the space,” increase user adoption and advance Web3 science and technology. Stanford University professor of computer science and electrical engineering Dan Boneh will also be joining Roughgarden as the senior research advisor. Boneh has worked with a16z for the past four years as a portfolio research advisor and also teaches applied cryptography at the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research. Major announcement from us today: we’re launching a16z crypto research to advance the science and technology of the next generation of the internet, led by the incomparable @Tim_Roughgarden https://t.co/KtvmP7fSkh— cdixon.eth (@cdixon) April 21, 2022
The firm noted that “new entrepreneurial idea for a Web3 application or protocol tends to uncover fresh research challenges” that are extremely important to solve in order to solidify the future of blockchain and crypto. Such challenges include the scaling and development of infrastructure, tokenomics that benefit all participants, and methods to build token economies in Web3 applications such as social media and gaming.“With the advent of Ethereum and other blockchains that are fully programmable, web3 has unlocked an extremely rich design space for innovation. It’s a space that we’ve only just begun to explore.”Related: a16z’s Chris Dixon tops ‘Midas List’ by turning $350M into $6B in 2021
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Crypto venture capital firms have been investing at unprecedented rates recently and Andreessen Horowitz is one of the industry’s leaders making huge returns on their investments.Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) general partner Chris Dixon has topped the Forbes “Midas List” of the world’s best venture capital investors in 2022.Seldom does a crypto or Web3 funding round finalize without a16z being involved somehow. According to an April 12 report by the publication, Dixon turned the $350 million Crypto Fund I into realized and unrealized gains of $6 billion in 2021. That equates to an eye-watering 17.7x gain according to “sources with knowledge of the fund’s financials.”Jack Dorsey may not want to give him props. But @cdixon and a16z’s $350M first crypto fund closed 2021 up 17.7x, a source tells @Forbes. @bhorowitz predicts in 10 years, he’ll be considered “the best investor of his generation.” pic.twitter.com/XdqwDWEcZ2— Alex Konrad (@alexrkonrad) April 12, 2022By comparison, the overall cryptocurrency market itself only managed a 200% gain from $780 billion on January 1, 2021, to $2.3 trillion by the end of December of the same year.a16z got into crypto early, leading a $25 million funding round into Coinbase in 2013. By the time Coinbase went public in April 2021, the firm held a 15% stake following 14 more funding rounds. The shares were worth $10 billion on the first day of trading resulting in a 60x return for the company. However, this was several years before Dixon’s crypto fund was launched in June 2018 with $300 million raised in total at the time according to Crunchbase.There have been other notable investments by a16z including decentralized exchange Uniswap, the Avalanche blockchain, NFT creator Dapper Labs, and Ethereum staking platform Lido, all of which have surged in valuation or collateral since. Dixon, who rarely appears for interviews, told Forbes:“My job is not to predict the future. My job is to be smart enough to know who the smart people are who will.”The company is currently raising funds for the world’s largest crypto fund worth a whopping $4.5 billion. In January, the firm said it planned to raise $3.5 billion for the fund, in addition to another $1 billion for Web3 seed investments.Journalist Alex Konrad said that a16z “plans to roll back its crypto fund into the firm — making crypto core to its main funds, akin to cloud or the internet.”Related: Venture capital year in review 2021: Cointelegraph Research TerminalConcerns have been raised by some crypto industry observers that too much venture capital involvement and investment in a project may erode its decentralization. a16z’s holdings of the UNI tokens and sway in governance votes for has been a particular issue. But either way, the crypto industry’s most prominent VC firm is still hunting for new investment opportunities in the sector.
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