Author: Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly
Compiled by: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher
LPs sometimes ask me who I think are the best venture capitalists in the crypto space.
I think about this question often.
Ever since I started in crypto venture capital, I've been driven to be the best. I am deeply motivated by competition, and investing is a pure competition. In the end, only one person wins the deal, and only one person predicts the winners of the cycle.
But when you really look and analyze, you find that three people have proven themselves to be the GOATs (Greatest Of All Time) in crypto venture capital.
This might sound a bit off-topic (and it is), and it might not be appealing to non-crypto investors. But I am one of them. So, this article is for everyone who has made investing in crypto their life's work.
Third Place: Dan Robinson (Partner and Head of Research at Paradigm)
Mike Speiser, Managing Partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, incubated Snowflake and grew it into a $75 billion company, which is a legendary story. It's almost unheard of for a venture capitalist to create such immense value for a portfolio company.
Dan Robinson is the Mike Speiser of crypto.
Time and again, Dan has been involved in the development of several epoch-making companies in the crypto space. He was involved with Uniswap from its inception, was a co-author and one of the foundational architects of Uniswap V3, which became the cornerstone of on-chain spot trading. He was also an early key contributor to Flashbots, which gave rise to the modern MEV auction. Additionally, he was an early research contributor to Plasma (the predecessor to Rollups) and consequently led the seed round for Optimism.
Dan is a true polymath. He breaks the mold of the traditional venture capitalist. He started as a securities lawyer, self-taught himself to become a protocol architect and mathematician, and is now a self-taught investor. Perhaps the smartest investment Matt Huang ever made was hiring Dan. We often lose deals because of Paradigm, and the reason is often people saying: Yeah, you guys are great, but sorry, I have to work with Dan.
The most fearsome investors are those who do more than just invest. Dan sees where the entire industry is going and has repeatedly rolled up his sleeves to help make it happen. This makes him one of the greatest investors of all time and earns him a place on crypto's Mount Rushmore.
Second Place: Chris Dixon (Partner at a16z)
Chris Dixon is an elder statesman in crypto. He saw the potential of crypto earlier than almost anyone. Before Chris, crypto venture capital was a niche.
He was the first mainstream venture capitalist to publicly dive into crypto and stake his career on it. He was the first to bring the language of venture capital to crypto and network investing. He was also the first to introduce these concepts to Silicon Valley and its institutional LP circles. Many of the concepts we discuss internally every day are borrowed directly from Chris. It's no exaggeration to say that I am walking on the track that Chris originally laid for himself.
I think Chris Dixon facilitated two of the most important deals. The first was, of course, Coinbase. In 2013, when the crypto industry was still in its infancy and everything was uncertain, Chris led Coinbase's Series B. This deal perfectly embodied Dixonism—"the smartest people do on weekends, everyone else will be doing in ten years." He made this deal with incredible foresight and then doubled down, going all-in on the entire industry. It was much harder to do what we are doing now when Chris was first doing these things.
The second deal was Uniswap. Almost everyone who looked at Uniswap's Series A passed on the investment (the final valuation was only $100 million at the time—Uniswap was still very small). At that time, we were fiercely debating whether AMMs were capital efficient enough, whether they would face too much adverse selection, and whether they were too easy to fork. Paradigm passed (even though they led the seed round), we passed, and as far as I know, other members of a16z's investment committee also didn't want to do the deal.
But Chris? Reportedly, Chris said: "A smart contract that can buy and sell anything? Sounds super cool. Who knows what will happen—let's try it." He was right. It was super cool. All sorts of unexpected things would happen because of permissionless AMMs. Passing on the Series A was a profound lesson for me.
I disagree with a16z on many fronts. But everyone in this industry should give Chris his due respect. He single-handedly, more effectively than any other venture capitalist, pushed the crypto industry to its current cultural standing. He has spent his life promoting crypto in Washington D.C. and legitimizing it, ultimately winning cultural recognition as a positive frontier technology. Much of the language we use about crypto today comes directly from Chris.
Without Chris's early and strong support, crypto venture capital would not be where it is today. For that, we are sincerely grateful.
And this leads to the number one venture capitalist of all time...
First Place: Kyle Samani (Co-founder and Managing Partner, Multicoin Capital)
Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.
I吐槽Kyle often. He annoys a lot of people—including me. Always has.
But investing is like a sport. In the end, you either score points, or you don't.
And Kyle has scored more points than anyone. The massive profits he made from his seed investment in Solana, and the effort he put into that deal, will one day be written into a book that I will read while frowning the whole time.
You see, the best investors are contrarians. And Kyle is a true contrarian. Being a contrarian doesn't mean you write a hot take that a bunch of people say "wow, that's really smart." If everyone wants to retweet you, by definition, you are not a contrarian. You know you're a true contrarian when you annoy people. When people think you're a fool. When they think you're burning money.
Kyle is one of the few true contrarians in crypto. I disagree with almost everything he says. But his initial investment, and his steadfast conviction to hold Solana through the trough after the FTX collapse, make him unquestionably the greatest venture capitalist in crypto history.
We often say that venture capital follows a power law. Kyle and his legendary Solana investment are the perfect embodiment of this law. Sometimes, it really only takes one deal.
And that is why Kyle is the GOAT crypto venture capitalist.
Those are my top three.
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LPs sometimes ask me who should be ahead on this list.
Although I think highly of myself—and I am indeed very自负—I don't think I can make the top three. I can definitely make the top ten, maybe even the top five, but I certainly can't compare to any of these three. I hope that one day, before my career is over, I can surpass them. If you compare by season, I have indeed had some seasons where I performed better than each of them.
But overall? These three are the best of all time.
Praising competitors doesn't help Dragonfly. But there's a deeper meaning behind the game. You see, it's very tough to be an investor in this industry—most of the peers I've met along the way haven't lasted. The crypto industry is brutally competitive.
Even though I compete with them every day, I have great respect for them. I've watched them grow through the ups and downs of the past nearly decade. We've共同 experienced all the storms of crypto together, supporting founders, supporting the industry, and helping it stand alongside any other technology. At the end of the year, I felt it necessary to pay tribute to them, because in this industry, venture capitalists are rarely praised.
Whether they realize it or not, each of them has done a lot for me. I have learned a great deal from each of them. I genuinely hope they are proud of what they have achieved.
Dan Robinson sees the path.
Chris Dixon saw it first.
Kyle Samani saw it through.
Hats off to you all. Wishing for even fiercer competition in the new year.
