Andreessen Horowitz Launches Largest Crypto Fund Ever With $4.5B

The mammoth fund plans to deploy capital into crypto startups and other venture investments

May 25, 2022 09:23 am

A16Z’S CHRIS DIXON | Source: MIKE LAWRENCE

a16z has earmarked $1.5B for seed investments in Web3 startups
It’s time for the “golden era” of Web3, the firm said

Venture capital behemoth Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has raised the largest-ever crypto venture fund: $4.5 billion.

The vehicle, the firm’s fourth, brings a16z’s total crypto and Web3 holdings to $7.6 billion.

The launch makes good on a plan unveiled in January, when the company published a now-updated investment thesis predicated on the “power of software” as “the encoding of human thought, and as such has an almost unbounded design space.”

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

“We think we are now entering the golden era of Web3,” general partner Chris Dixon said in a blog post announcing the new fund. “Programmable blockchains are sufficiently advanced, and a diverse range of apps have reached tens of millions of users. More importantly, a massive wave of world-class talent has entered [Web3] over the last year.”

Talent flocks to the industry during a bull market, Dixon told the audience at last week’s Permissionless conference in Palm Beach, adding that a bear market is the prime time for builders to focus on what comes next.

The fund will invest in Web3 startups that run the gamut from DeFi, to gaming, infrastructure, DAOs, NFTs, privacy, decentralized social media “and many other areas.”

The firm also plans to expand its in-house staff to meet the vetting needs of additional startup investments.

Loading Tweet..

The crypto portfolio of a16z consists of several dozen companies, including big names like Dapper Labs, dYdX, OpenSea, Near, Solana, Phantom and Uniswap. The most recent addition is Flowcarbon, which is building an on-chain carbon credit tokenization platform.

“Our frequent conversations with builders have given us the confidence to go big, and we’re grateful to be your partner,” Dixon wrote of the latest fund.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

ERC 8004: Introducing Trust for AI Agents

ERC 8004 introduces a new trust layer for AI agents by standardizing onchain identity, reputation, and validation. As agents begin handling capital and coordinating autonomously, trust becomes the key constraint to broader adoption. The rollout mirrors the early x402 narrative, where adoption lagged the initial launch until major integrations and a viral use case pulled attention into the ecosystem. If ERC 8004 follows a similar path, downstream infrastructure tied to the standard could see outsized benefit as the narrative gains traction. The primary beneficiaries are likely to be agent frameworks and launchpads at the distribution layer, agent to agent coordination platforms that enable delegation and payments, and validation providers that offer stronger security and execution guarantees.

by Kunal Doshi