https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/andreessen-horowitzs-state-of-crypto
"Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”) has invested billions in
crypto, raising four separate crypto funds: $350 million in 2018, $515 million
in 2020, $2.2 billion in 2021, and $4.5 billion in 2022. Needless to say, they
have a
strong incentive to evangelize crypto at all costs, regardless of
what’s actually happening in the industry.
They spent much of crypto’s most recent bull run endlessly talking up crypto,
with general partners like Chris Dixon writing long, starry-eyed blog posts
about “why web3 matters”, going on podcasts to preach the gospel, and lashing
out at critics. He did a better job on the podcasts than partner Marc
Andreessen or advisor Packy McCormick, but they… well, they tried. A16z
launched an entire “web3 with a16z crypto” podcast and “web3 weekly”
newsletter, claiming to “cut through all the noise and share the signals that
matter”, but instead nakedly evangelizing in hopes of luring in the next
greater fool.
Crypto’s a tougher sell these days. The string of high-profile collapses that
made international headlines throughout 2022 are fresh in everyone’s minds,
NFTs have developed a widespread reputation of being kind of cringe, and when I
(rarely) mention blockchains to people in real life, the most common reply I
get is, “that’s all a scam, right?” After mostly negative price movement, the
recoveries over the past few months still leave the Bitcoin price down more
than 40% from the beginning of 2022. No one seems to be saying “WAGMI” anymore,
and I haven’t been told to “have fun staying poor” as a no-coiner in a very
long time. A lot of the loudest crypto pushers have moved on to greener
pastures, rebranding as “AI influencers”.
But reading Andreessen Horowitz’s newest
State of Crypto report, one wonders
if they exist in a parallel universe where the recent “crypto winter” never
came to pass."
A deep dive into venture capitalist crypto bullshit.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
