Andreessen Horowitz adds $4.5bn to its bold bet on Crypto and Web3

We’re in a “golden era” of Web3 and crypto. That’s the prediction of Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), which yesterday announced its fourth crypto fund had raised $4.5bn.

Despite the recent downturn in crypto prices—with Bitcoin tumbling 34 per cent in 2022 and the high-profile collapse of Terra—A16Z general partner Chris Dixon said the investor had never been more confident in the sector.

“Most computing cycles have “golden eras” when the right mix — including new talent, viable infrastructure, and community knowledge — comes together. Golden eras are when legendary teams are formed, big ideas are hatched, and great products get built,” Dixon wrote, announcing Crypto Fund 4.

Of the $4.5 raised for the new fund, $1.5bn will be dedicated to early-stage seed investments, while the remaining $3bn will go towards later stage venture investments.

A16Z has previously backed some of the biggest winners in technology and fintech including Airbnb, Facebook, Wise and Coinbase.

Combined with the investor’s previous crypto funds, Dixon wrote that since 2013 A16Z has raised $7.6bn in capital dedicated to crypto and Web3 investments.

In terms of ‘what’ A16Z will be investing in, Dixon laid out a whole raft of interesting developments that he’s keeping an eye on.

“We are excited about developments in web3 games, DeFi, decentralized social media, self-sovereign identity, layer 1 and layer 2 infrastructure, bridges, DAOs & governance, NFT communities, privacy, creator monetization, regenerative finance, new applications of ZK proofs, decentralized content & story creation, and many other areas.“

Among the latest crypto bets made by A16Z is in controversial WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s new Flowcarbon startup, which aims to sell tokenized carbon credits on the blockchain.

Earlier this week Flowcarbon revealed it had raised a funding round of over $70m, led by a $32m investment by A16Z Crypto.