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Almost two years in the past, Katie Haun left Andreessen Horowitz and raised two crypto funds totaling $1.5 billion. After which . . . a crypto market disaster occurred. At TechCrunch Disrupt, she regarded again at what occurred over the previous couple of years and confirmed that she’s nonetheless very optimistic about the way forward for crypto.
When Katie Haun was a normal accomplice at a16z, bitcoin was buying and selling at $65,000 and Sam Bankman-Fried was nonetheless on the helm of FTX. And Haun agrees that these issues set the area again significantly. However it’s not a foul time to be a crypto investor.
“I believe there’s a notion on the market that crypto is crickets chirping. We discover ourselves very busy, however one of many issues we did do is we noticed this market correction, and we very purposely waited to make some deployments,” Katie Haun stated. “So I do know that is going to sound a bit of odd, however we really feel really it’s a extremely good time to be investing within the area throughout this time.”
In response to her, there are a couple of misconceptions about Haun Ventures. “I believe one other misperception is ‘Oh, wow, you raised it throughout a excessive market, nice timing, peak.’ Really, that was not the case,” Haun stated. “It was not a stroll within the park. Primary, crypto market cap had dropped 40% from its peak.”
“The opposite factor is notion of our fund is we’re one enormous, monumental $1.5 billion fund, and we’re not. We’ve two funds. We’ve an early stage fund, $500 million. We do A, B and C. After which we have now an acceleration fund, which backs all types of later stage initiatives in crypto.”
Relating to the bigger fund, Haun Ventures not too long ago closed two offers with out saying them in two “iconic manufacturers” in crypto which might be rising quickly. Haun didn’t title these firms.
With out giving any onerous numbers, Haun stated that her agency hasn’t deployed half of the bigger fund. “Of our earlier stage fund, it’s significantly lower than that,” she stated.
She has no remorse elevating $1.5 billion throughout her two funds. She thinks it’s the suitable dimension and he or she believes Haun Ventures will stay dedicated to this type of fund dimension in the long term.
“And by the best way, I’m sitting right here publicly stating this on the file in a stage setting, even when the market is in a large crypto bull run, we don’t intend to extend our dimension. We predict we’ve picked our dimension and our technique for a cause,” Haun stated.
SEC would possibly want to return again to Earth
When speaking concerning the SEC and present regulatory considerations about cryptocurrencies, Katie Haun expressed some sturdy opinions about among the choices which have been made by the company.
“The regulation and the rules are determined on this nation by courts and by Congress. They’re not determined by impartial businesses. So simply because an company says one thing doesn’t actually make it the regulation. And I believe lots of people don’t notice that. And so we’ve seen businesses, sure branches of presidency — by the best way, throughout completely different administrations too — get very, very concerned,” Haun stated.
Specifically, she criticized the present management. “I believe the SEC underneath [Gary Gensler] has actually taken a really expansive view of their jurisdiction in a means that I believe, by the best way, make no mistake, it’s not simply crypto, it’s on AI, it’s on local weather,” Haun stated.
“And I believe that’s a bit regarding, as a result of that’s not how our system is about up. And I believe that’s why you’ve began to see some federal judges beginning to say, ‘Wait a second, it is a step too far,’” she added.
“I believe what’s occurring now’s regulators have to show that they’re the robust cop on the beat. They usually’re going after no matter they’ll, even when they won’t finally prevail.”
The top of FTX
As a former federal prosecutor, Katie Haun additionally had ideas about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX basically. She did meet him a few occasions at conferences.
“I used to be on workforce Coinbase and the viewers was by and enormous numerous FTX supporters. The one different time — I believe I met him two or 3 times — the one different time I shared a stage with him was behind closed doorways, so I gained’t say an excessive amount of about it. However I can let you know additionally, I used to be speaking about governance and there have been some awkward moments the place he was saying, oh, I used to be not registering,” she stated.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 21: (L-R) TechCrunch Normal Supervisor & Editor-In-Chief Connie Loizos and Haun Ventures Founder & CEO Katie Haun communicate onstage throughout TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 at Moscone Heart on September 21, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Picture Credit: Kimberly White/Getty Pictures for TechCrunch
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