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Practically 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 common 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 house again significantly. However it’s not a foul time to be a crypto investor.
“I feel 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 mentioned. “So I do know that is going to sound a bit of odd, however we really feel truly it’s a extremely good time to be investing within the house throughout this time.”
Based on her, there are just a few misconceptions about Haun Ventures. “I feel one other misperception is ‘Oh, wow, you raised it throughout a excessive market, nice timing, peak.’ Really, that was not the case,” Haun mentioned. “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 now have two funds. We now have an early stage fund, $500 million. We do A, B and C. After which we now have an acceleration fund, which backs every kind of later stage initiatives in crypto.”
On the subject of the bigger fund, Haun Ventures just lately closed two offers with out saying them in two “iconic manufacturers” in crypto which are rising quickly. Haun didn’t identify these firms.
With out giving any arduous numbers, Haun mentioned that her agency hasn’t deployed half of the bigger fund. “Of our earlier stage fund, it’s significantly lower than that,” she mentioned.
She has no remorse elevating $1.5 billion throughout her two funds. She thinks it’s the proper measurement and he or she believes Haun Ventures will stay dedicated to this kind of fund measurement in the long term.
“And by the way in which, I’m sitting right here publicly stating this on the document in a stage setting, even when the market is in an enormous crypto bull run, we don’t intend to extend our measurement. We expect we’ve picked our measurement and our technique for a cause,” Haun mentioned.
SEC may want to come back again to Earth
When speaking concerning the SEC and present regulatory issues about cryptocurrencies, Katie Haun expressed some robust opinions about a number of the choices which have been made by the company.
“The legislation and the laws are determined on this nation by courts and by Congress. They’re not determined by unbiased businesses. So simply because an company says one thing doesn’t actually make it the legislation. And I feel lots of people don’t understand that. And so we’ve seen businesses, sure branches of presidency — by the way in which, throughout totally different administrations too — get very, very concerned,” Haun mentioned.
Specifically, she criticized the present management. “I feel the SEC beneath [Gary Gensler] has actually taken a really expansive view of their jurisdiction in a means that I feel, by the way in which, make no mistake, it’s not simply crypto, it’s on AI, it’s on local weather,” Haun mentioned.
“And I feel that’s a bit regarding, as a result of that’s not how our system is ready up. And I feel 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 feel what’s happening now’s regulators have to show that they’re the powerful cop on the beat. They usually’re going after no matter they will, even when they may not in the end prevail.”
The top of FTX
As a former federal prosecutor, Katie Haun additionally had ideas about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX normally. She did meet him a few occasions at conferences.
“I used to be on staff Coinbase and the viewers was by and enormous a whole lot of FTX supporters. The one different time — I feel 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 authorities and there have been some awkward moments the place he was saying, oh, I used to be not registering,” she mentioned.
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 Photos for TechCrunch
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