Author: Hu Tao, ChainCatcher
On January 9, top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced the completion of its largest fundraising effort to date: raising over $15 billion in total for multiple new funds throughout 2025, an amount accounting for more than 18% of the total venture capital investment in the United States for that year.
Encryption is no longer listed separately, but it has not been marginalized.
These funds include USV (1.176 billion USD), Apps (1.7 billion USD), BioHealth (700 million USD), Infrastructure (1.7 billion USD), Growth (6.75 billion USD), and other venture capital strategies (3 billion USD). These figures do not include crypto-specific funds. a16z last announced a crypto fund raise in May 2022, which amounted to 4.5 billion USD, bringing the total raised across the five funds to 8.1 billion USD.
Notably, in the official announcement of this funding round, a16z devoted considerable space to describing the American national narrative and values: "Among all countries, the United States provides the most stable opportunity for people to pursue a better life. Among all systems, the American system provides the most stable opportunity for people. As a result, over the past 250 years, as the United States has risen on the world stage, the number of people who have gained opportunities has exceeded any period in history. This has greatly improved the human condition."
At the same time, a16z has deeply tied its own interests to the national interest. "If we cannot push the country's policies in the right direction, the United States may very likely lose its position as the global leader in technology. We are already seeing early signs of this trend in the fields of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. If the U.S. leadership in global technology declines, other areas will quickly follow suit. As a leader in the American venture capital industry, the fate of new technologies in the U.S. is partially in our hands. The technological fields we invest in are dynamic, innovative, and intensely competitive with China."
Such statements take up more than half of the announcement, reflecting a16z's clear alignment with the Trump administration amid intense geopolitical competition, and its attempt to convince the U.S. government and people that a16z is the best vehicle to safeguard their collective interests.
More importantly, a16z has closely tied the narrative of encryption to U.S. national interests throughout this process. a16z states that their mission is to ensure that the United States maintains a dominant position in the technology sector for the next hundred years, beginning first with securing the key architectures of the future—artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. Next, they aim to apply these technologies to critical areas essential for human prosperity: biology, health, defense, public safety, education, and entertainment. Ultimately, the U.S. government will adopt these technologies to defend and advance American interests.
Among the various sub-sectors mentioned by a16z, AI and crypto are listed separately and given a foundational priority. This indicates that although a16z has not launched a dedicated crypto fund this time, it still regards crypto as one of its core strategic areas.
In its logic, cryptography is not merely a tool for financial innovation, but also a technical system concerning value, ownership, and coordination mechanisms, as well as a strategic-level technology that impacts U.S. national interests. If this system ultimately matures, its influence will extend far beyond the cryptocurrency market itself, potentially reshaping financial and governance structures for decades to come.
It is precisely based on this judgment that a16z continues to significantly increase its investment in institutional development, compliance pathways, and policy-level engagement, rather than merely focusing on project-level investments.
Strong commitment and confidence in cryptocurrency
In the current sluggish crypto industry primary market, most VCs have clearly reduced their investment frequency. Only 15 VCs made more than 20 investments this year, and a16z is one of the most active among them.
Recent a16z Investments Source:RootData
According to RootData, over the past year, investments made by a16z Crypto and a16z CSX totaled 49 deals, ranking second among all investors, just behind Coinbase Ventures. Of these, a16z led 28 investments, surpassing all other crypto VCs.
At the same time, a16z continues to expand globally. In December 2025, a16z Crypto announced the opening of an office in Seoul, South Korea, and hired SungMo Park, previously the Asia-Pacific head of Monad, as its GTM Asia-Pacific lead. Through this office, a16z plans to expand its business presence in Asia and enhance new capabilities to support cryptocurrency companies operating in the region.
The continued investment in both capital and personnel further confirms that a16z is still increasing its commitment to the crypto space. At the level of industry narratives and beliefs, a16z is also frequently speaking out, striving to inject more confidence into the market.
For example, a16z crypto engineering partner Jeremy Zhang recently stated that as funding channels mature, digital dollars could directly integrate with local payment systems and merchant tools, giving rise to new transaction models. Workers could receive cross-border payments in real time. Merchants could accept global dollars without needing a bank account. Applications could settle with users instantly anytime and anywhere. Stablecoins will evolve from niche financial instruments into the foundational settlement layer of the internet.
Ali Yahya, a general partner at a16z Crypto, believes that privacy will be the most important moat in the cryptocurrency space this year. It is a key element for the global financial system's transition to on-chain infrastructure, and something that almost all existing blockchains currently lack. Once users join a privacy-focused chain, they are unlikely to switch easily, thereby reducing the risk of information leakage. This dynamic creates a winner-takes-all scenario. Since privacy is critical for most real-world applications, a small number of privacy chains could potentially dominate the majority of the crypto ecosystem.
At the same time, a16z is also one of the key channels for communication between the U.S. government and its regulators and the cryptocurrency industry. On one hand, it frequently meets with senior officials in the U.S. government to advocate for as open and lenient regulatory policies as possible for the crypto industry. On the other hand, it continuously conveys regulatory signals to the industry.
"Crypto Market Structure Regulation—With the government closer than ever to passing the bill—is expected to eliminate all kinds of distortions this year. If passed, this legislation will encourage transparency, establish clear standards, and replace the 'regulatory roulette' with a more transparent, structured approach to fundraising, token offerings, and decentralization paths. After the explosion in stablecoin issuance following the rise of GENIUS, legislation around crypto market structure will bring even more significant changes, but this time the transformation will target the entire ecosystem," recently stated Miles Jennings, General Counsel of a16z Crypto.
Last August, a16z and the DeFi Education Fund also applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a "safe harbor" provision for blockchain technology. In short, this would mean that DeFi projects would not need to register as brokers for their applications.
This fundraising round by a16z will not directly lead to a reversal in sentiment in the crypto market, nor can it easily be seen as the beginning of a new bull market. Instead, it serves more as a signal: the crypto industry is entering a phase of deflation and dispelling illusions.
When the market no longer pays a premium for the "crypto narrative" itself, both inside and outside the industry begin to return to a more fundamental question:Can cryptography and Web3 truly become the foundation of the next generation of social and financial systems?
a16z clearly still believes the answer is yes—but this time,They closely tie this belief to the American national narrative and national competitiveness, supporting it with substantial capital, global strategies, policy lobbying, and sustained public advocacy. In an era of intensifying geopolitical competition, a16z's actions go beyond the continuation of an investment strategy; they represent a clear and assertive declaration of technological and political stance.