Supply chains have ground to a halt and dozens of millions are unemployed but this hasn’t stopped crypto from getting a big fundamental boost: one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capital firms just raised half a billion dollars to invest in industry startups.<\/p>\n
Announced by<\/a> Katie Haun and Chris Dixon, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) \u2014 a VC firm known for its investments in Twitter, Slack, Lime, Instagram, and many other big companies \u2014 just finished fundraising for \u201cCrypto Fund II,\u201d a new \u201c$515 million fund that will be used to invest in networks and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Haun and Dixon will be the partners leading this fund. According to them, they will be focusing on five main categories of investments in the cryptocurrency space:<\/p>\n Vance Spencer, a co-founder of thesis-driven crypto fund Framework Ventures, said that this new $515 million fund could be very important to this industry moving forward.<\/p>\n “I see this as a recapitalization of the early-stage crypto scene both from a financial and legitimacy standpoint With crypto projects starting to show real traction, I am excited to see a later-stage funding ecosystem starting to take shape to support our industry,” Spencer said<\/a>, summarizing the signifiance of this fund.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The raise comes as crypto funding has slowed down at a dramatic pace. Data shared by Rob \u201cCrypto Bobby\u201d Paone, founder of Proof of Talent, indicates that the number of crypto funding deals that took place in Q1 of 2020 was a mere 79 \u2014 far below the 220 in Q1 of 2019 or 230 in Q1 of 2018.<\/p>\n Andrew Kang, a venture investor, explained<\/a> that Ethereum could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this new fund. The investor interpreted<\/a> a16z’s assertion that it will be investing heavily in “next-generation payment” projects as a sign that they will be “investing in ETH, the stablecoin settlement layer.”<\/p>\n A16Z is investing in payment blockchains<\/p>\n AKA<\/p>\n A16Z is investing in $ETH<\/a>, the stablecoin settlement layer https:\/\/t.co\/JfQGEkeFtq<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/xDIkbNy40v<\/a><\/p>\n — Andrew Kang (@Rewkang) May 1, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
Ethereum Could Be the Biggest Beneficiary<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n