Andreessen Horowitz Considers $1 Billion Crypto Investment Fund

Andreessen Horowitz, one of the highest-profile Silicon Valley venture capital firms, will be looking at a new investment fund for investing in cryptocurrency, which could go up to $1 billion, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

This comes after Andreessen’s success with investing in Coinbase, according to FT.

This will be the firm’s third crypto-focused fund. It will attempt to raise between $800 million and $1 billion from investors, which would make it one of the largest pools of capital dedicated to crypto, and around twice the size of its predecessor, FT reported.

A surge in the valuations of bitcoin, ether and other cryptos has caused Andreessen and other such firms to begin raising large “war chests,” according to FT. Crypto venture capitalists have looked to the success of Coinbase, which went public in April and currently has a valuation of $60 billion. There have also been numerous direct investments in virtual currencies that have seen boosts in value. Those returns have made investors confident about their chances, with endowments and foundations renewing their bets.

For instance, Dragonfly Capital was the recipient last month of new investments totaling $225 million and more than doubling the sum it had received in its debut version in 2018, FT reported.

Andreessen’s fundraising would rival that raised by Paradigm, which has garnered $1 billion from investors, including endowments from Yale and Harvard, according to FT.

In other news, Coinbase is working with PayPal to provide a new way for users to purchase crypto with debit cards and bank accounts linked to PayPal.

The company said the idea behind the project is that buying crypto should be as easy as possible, and the partnership with PayPal is intended to provide a level of trust and security with a well-known company. Those with existing PayPal account will be able to make transactions via Coinbase instantly, without having to add account info.