While the entire crypto industry is still shivering in the winter chill, and countless VC firms choose to wait and see, that venture capital firm known as the 'Most Aggressive VC in Silicon Valley,' a16z, has once again raised its hunting rifle.

According to a report by Fortune magazine, a16z crypto is raising approximately $2 billion for its fifth fund, planning to complete the fundraising in the first half of 2026. Although this figure is half the size of the $4.5 billion 'behemoth' from 2022, it is still enough to turn heads across the industry in the current market environment. Dragonfly, another significant VC in the Web3 space, announced its fourth fund on February 17th with a size of only $650 million.

a16z's investment style in the Web3 industry is unique, and it has almost preemptively bet on all the hot sectors. According to the Fortune report, this fundraising plan by a16z is very rushed, with not only a time window of just 3 months remaining but also a focus solely on blockchain-related projects.

We can't help but ask: what exactly have they seen?

The VC Revolution by Two Programmers

To understand a16z's choice today, we must go back to the winter of 2009.

The shadow of the financial crisis had not yet dissipated, and the air in Silicon Valley was filled with pessimism. Two technically skilled individuals who were already financially free, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, decided to start a venture capital firm at this worst possible time. Their first fund targeted $300 million, with the two themselves committing $15 million.

What did the VC circle think at the time? "This is a stupid idea, absolutely should not be done." This is how Ben Horowitz later recalled the peers'评价 (evaluation).

Besides being considered too aggressive with the $300 million size, a16z's fundraising memorandum also contained a sentence that made peers laugh out loud: "We believe technical talent is the primary resource, and therefore will build a platform team to serve founders." Peers at the time believed this would increase overhead, drag down returns, and violate the traditional VC iron law of "small and elite."

Today, almost all mainstream VCs are copying this "stupid idea," and this is a16z's基因 (gene): daring to say "yes" when others say "no."

In 2009, a16z invested $65 million to participate in the acquisition of Skype. At the time, eBay was in a patent lawsuit with Skype's founders, and everyone said the risk was too high. The result? Microsoft took over for $8.5 billion in less than two years.

In 2010, Benchmark partner Matt Cohler mocked a16z's buying of Facebook and Twitter shares on the secondary market as "trading pork futures." And the result? Groupon's $17.8 billion IPO, Facebook's $104 billion IPO, Twitter's $31 billion IPO.

In 2015, a New Yorker journalist relayed peer doubts: for a16z's first four funds to achieve returns of 5-10 times, the total valuation of the investment组合 (portfolio) would need to reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Marc Andreessen made a dismissive gesture: "A load of废话连篇 (nonsense). We are here to hunt elephants, chase the big ones!"

Today, the total value of a16z's first four funds' investment portfolio reached $853 billion, far exceeding the initial threshold. "Hunting elephants" later became a classic meme in the VC industry, and a16z's two founders also constantly use their own experience to inspire entrepreneurs: truly innovative things often seem stupid at first.

This is the嗅觉 (sense of smell) of the elephant hunter.

Early Layout in the Crypto Track

In 2013, when most people still regarded Bitcoin as a "geek's toy," a16z had already led Coinbase's Series B funding round. At that time, Ethereum hadn't even been born.

Eight years later, Coinbase went public on Nasdaq, with its market capitalization once reaching $85.8 billion. a16z cashed out $4.4 billion and still holds a 7% stake today.

This is not luck, but a lead time.

In 2018, the cryptocurrency market experienced its first major bear market, with Bitcoin falling from nearly $20,000 to over $3,000. It was at this time that a16z officially launched its first crypto fund, Crypto Fund I, with a size of $300 million.

The same $300 million, this time no one questioned their aggressiveness and model, and the choices of this fund were enough to silence those who questioned Web3. Between 2018 and 2021, projects invested in by a16z's crypto fund included: MakerDAO (now named Sky), Compound, Uniswap, Solana, Avalanche, NEAR, dYdX, Dapper Labs, OpenSea, Axie Infinity.

According to DefiLlama data, the TVL of the three DeFi projects Sky, Compound, and Uniswap exceeds $11.4 billion, accounting for nearly 12% of the TVL of all DeFi projects. Although many names we were familiar with four or five years ago have faded into the dust of history, you cannot deny that their past glory still influences today's Web3 world.

The持仓价值 (holding value) of the first fund had already increased 11 times compared to the initial fundraising amount by the end of 2021, becoming one of a16z's best-performing funds. Even after falling 40% in 2022, investors still made substantial profits.

The success of Crypto Fund I made a16z the brightest star among crypto VCs. In 2020, the second fund, $515 million. In 2021, the third fund, $2.2 billion. In 2022, the fourth fund, $4.5 billion. Cumulative ammunition of over $7.6 billion made a16z the world's largest crypto venture capital institution by scale. Optimism, LayerZero, Lido, EigenLayer—these subsequently invested projects have also almost become leaders in their respective tracks.

Of course, a16z also "chases hot topics" and has investment mistakes. In the prediction market war, a16z also chose to heavily bet on Kalshi; investments in Celo, Chia, Dfinity, and Farcaster, in hindsight, also involved some misjudgments.

In this cycle, a16z holds a relatively negative attitude towards inscriptions and Memes. Its "VC coins," into which it poured tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars, encountered unprecedented setbacks. But L2, LSD and restaking, interoperability—these can indeed be said to be the only "Web3 Native" narratives, and they have indeed all been captured by a16z.

You can say they have an elitist arrogance, but it's hard to say they are unskilled.

The Double Life of a "Media Company"

a16z, almost crowned in the Web3 field, has never been without controversy.

In 2015, former a16z partner Benedict Evans joked: a16z is a media company that makes money through venture capital. This sentence later became a classic quote for吐槽 (mocking) a16z inside and outside the industry.

In 2021, a16z launched Future.com, a centralized media platform, attempting to build a "content empire" in the tech field. However, this project was shut down after 18 months of operation. The failure of Future.com did not make a16z abandon its media strategy. Instead, they adjusted their direction—from building a centralized media platform to constructing a decentralized "media ecosystem."

In April 2025, a16z acquired Erik Torenberg's podcast network Turpentine. This was a typical acquisition + talent recruitment deal. a16z expanded its media and network business by acquiring Turpentine, and Erik Torenberg joined a16z to负责 (be responsible for) investments and lead the media team. Seven months later, a16z officially launched a16z New Media.

In the official website article "What is New Media?", a16z stated that the goal of the "New Media" team is to build the best turnkey media operation in the venture capital field, helping the founders of portfolio companies win the narrative war, and more importantly, bypass traditional media.

In the AI era, the barrier to developing products has been almost reduced to zero, but the ability to tell stories has unexpectedly been given higher priority. Giants like Anthropic, OpenAI, Netflix, and Microsoft have significantly expanded their comms/storytelling teams. If you've recently frequently刷到 (scrolled across) the view on social media that you will be eliminated if you don't use AI, some of it must have come from these AI companies.

After all, in an era where products can be made in a few hours, whoever can sell the product and service by telling stories can survive.

The author has heard many people吐槽 (complain about) a16z, thinking they have no real substance, often just helping invested companies tell stories, waiting for bag holders to enter the market. Now it seems that this storytelling ability has become a scarce commodity in the AI era. Perhaps the fact that a16z always seems to see trends early is itself a story told by a16z, but the author recently heard a very interesting story:

a16z is a nerd-friendly VC. They are very乐于 (happy to) find those who are unrecognized due to lack of social skills. These people are usually不善言辞 (not good with words) but have many whimsical ideas. These ideas seem almost impossible to most people, or contrary to current mainstream cognition. Their shortcomings make it difficult for them to stand out in the human proving ground, but a16z found them and brought them together.

When like-minded people gather together, they产生 (generate) intense chemical reactions, making a16z's maverick approach highly rewarding.

The道理很简单 (reason is simple): these people don't need to face complex business wars directly but serve as the strategists behind the generals going into battle. Profound insight and a冷静的头脑 (cool head) always allow them to find alternative paths. More importantly, no one here否定 (negates) a strange idea at the beginning, because outsiders might think they are crazy, but the people inside the team know that this might be the only best answer.

Where Will the $2 Billion Be Invested?

Since October 2024, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a significant correction, with the total market capitalization evaporating over $2 trillion. In such an environment, many crypto VCs have chosen to收缩战线 (shrink their fronts).

But a16z's choice is: increase bets against the trend.

Chris Dixon has stated多次 (repeatedly) that a16z crypto holds about 95% of the assets it has historically invested in. They believe that in venture capital, selling优质资产 (quality assets) too early is the worst decision. Dixon sees blockchain as the next infrastructure of the internet, believing the crypto industry is in a long "foundation-laying period," just like the neural network paper published in 1943 is to today's AI.真正的 mainstreaming requires decades of preparation.

"We are thinking in terms of centuries." said a16z partner Katherine Boyle.

From this perspective, the current market downturn is反而 (instead) the best time to布局 (layout). Valuations are more reasonable, quality projects are easier to access, and competition is relatively less. More importantly, a16z may have seen the next即将爆发 (about to explode) track.

The Fortune report mentioned some key points, for example, a16z does not want the fundraising period to be too long and will only invest in blockchain-related projects.

We can roughly guess the information conveyed behind this: a16z has seen some new trends and wants to layout as soon as possible, but a few hundred million dollars is not enough,至少 (at least) $2 billion is needed.

Many people speculate they will invest in stablecoins, RWA tokenization, payments, Crypto+AI, and other hot sectors we are familiar with. But the author wants to say that they must have seen something different. Unfortunately, we don't know yet.

Although not explicitly stated, Chris Dixon revealed some clues in a tweet on February 7th:

We anticipated that financial applications would be the first to succeed, so we invested in Coinbase, MakerDAO, Compound, Uniswap, and Morpho, but non-financial applications will eventually catch up;

It was not accidental that financial applications came first, but a basic sequencing issue. Only when enough people come in will new applications emerge;

The long-term lack of regulation and legislation in the Crypto field has led the industry astray. Once regulation lands, good money will drive out bad money;

It was those chaotic years that created the final glory. The internet and AI are no exception.

Perhaps a16z has seen one or a series of new promising tracks. Perhaps this $2 billion will not be invested in new tracks at all. It might continue to invest in those projects we think are already dead. It might be like a16z's early days,疯狂收集 (frantically collecting) chips in the secondary market.

a16z is right there. They continue to do things many people don't understand. But you, in front of the screen, will you choose to believe this time?

Believe in the Power of Belief

Is a16z a preacher of Web3 or a shrewd harvester?

This question may not have a standard answer.

From a certain perspective, a16z has indeed obtained huge returns from the rise of the crypto industry. The Coinbase investment alone brought them over $7 billion in returns. But from another perspective, without institutions like a16z making early-stage bets, without them supporting those seemingly crazy entrepreneurs with real money, could the Web3 industry have developed to today's scale?

Their post-investment services have helped countless startups through the most difficult times. Their policy lobbying has争取 (fought for) a more friendly regulatory environment for the industry. Their content output has educated generations of entrepreneurs and developers.

In this atypical cycle, we have seen market resistance towards VCs. a16z also once used a huge amount of UNI reserves, wanting LayerZero to become Uniswap's choice for cross-chain interoperability, but the market似乎 (seemed) to聚沙成塔 (gather sand into a tower) just to对抗 (resist) VCs and硬捧 (forcefully promote) Wormhole上去 (up).

At the end of 2021, Musk teased on X, "Has anyone seen Web3? I can't find it." Jack Dorsey replied sarcastically: "It's somewhere between a and z."

Looking at it today, these two jokes hit the mark. The concept of Web4.0 has already been proposed, and Web3 hasn't even explained itself clearly yet. Many partners of large Crypto VCs have chosen to leave, many Crypto project founders have chosen to exit, and many investors have started to focus on the stock and commodity markets.

a16z chose to believe in Web3.

The author actually often had moments of动摇 (wavering) in the past year or two. But whenever during those difficult times, I remember the鸡汤 (inspirational soup) boiled by many successful business people: pay attention to what the smartest people in the world are doing and follow them.

Right now, the smartest people in the world are definitely doing AI, but there is also a portion of them who continue to openly insist on crypto. The author, like you, cannot see particularly obvious potential and hope. We似乎 (seem) not to have the ability to see the future. All we can do is, when that new $2 billion fund starts deploying, keep a close eye on the projects the fund invests in.

After all, over the past 15 years, this "elephant hunter" has proven one thing: when others are still arguing about whether elephants exist, they have already pulled the trigger.