Author: Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly
Translated by: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher
LP sometimes asks me who I think is the most outstanding venture capitalist in the cryptocurrency space.
I often think about this question.
Since I began my career in cryptocurrency venture capital, I've always aspired to be the best. I'm deeply driven by competition, and investing itself is a pure form of competition. In the end, only one person can win a trade, and only one person can accurately predict the winners of a cycle.
But after a close examination and analysis, you'll find that three individuals have proven themselves as the GOATs (Greatest Of All Time) in the field of cryptocurrency venture capital.
This may sound a bit off-topic (and it really is), and it might not be appealing to non-crypto investors. But I am one of them. Therefore, this article is written for all those who have made investing in cryptocurrencies their lifelong pursuit.
Third Place: Dan Robinson (Paradigm General Partner and Head of Research)
Mike Speiser, a managing partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, incubated Snowflake and helped grow it into a $75 billion market cap company—an extraordinary story. It is virtually unheard of for a venture capitalist to create such immense value for a portfolio company.
Dan Robinson is the Mike Speiser of the cryptocurrency world.
Dan has repeatedly contributed to the development of several groundbreaking companies in the cryptocurrency space. He was involved from the very beginning of Uniswap and was one of the co-authors and foundational contributors to Uniswap V3, which later became a cornerstone of on-chain spot trading. He was also an early key contributor to Flashbots, which pioneered the modern MEV auction system. Additionally, he was an early research contributor to Plasma (a precursor to Rollups), and as a result, he led the seed round investment in Optimism.
Dan is a true polymath. He breaks the traditional mold of a venture capitalist. He started as a securities lawyer, then became a self-taught protocol architect and mathematician, and is now a self-taught investor. Perhaps the wisest investment Matt Huang ever made was hiring Dan. We often miss out on deals because of Paradigm — people frequently say, "Yeah, you're great, but sorry, I have to work with Dan."
The most fearsome investors are those who do more than just invest. Dan saw the direction in which the entire industry was heading and repeatedly rolled up his sleeves to personally drive its realization. This has made him one of the greatest investors of all time and earned him a place on the "Mount Rushmore" of the cryptocurrency industry.
Second place: Chris Dixon (a16z partner)
Chris Dixon is a veteran figure in the cryptocurrency space. He recognized the potential of cryptocurrency earlier than almost anyone else. Before Chris, cryptocurrency venture capital was still a niche field.
He was the first mainstream venture capitalist to publicly enter the cryptocurrency space and bet his career on it. He was the first to introduce venture capital terminology and concepts into the cryptocurrency and internet investment fields. He was also the first to bring these ideas into Silicon Valley and its institutional LP circles. Many of the concepts we discuss internally every day were directly borrowed from Chris. Without exaggeration, I am following the path that Chris originally laid out for himself.
I believe Chris Dixon was behind two of the most significant deals. The first one, of course, was Coinbase. In 2013, when the cryptocurrency industry was still in its infancy and everything was uncertain, Chris led the Series B investment in Coinbase. This deal perfectly exemplifies the Dixon Doctrine — "What the smartest people are doing on the weekends, everyone else will be doing in ten years." He completed this deal with remarkable foresight, and then doubled down, fully committing to the entire industry. When Chris first made these moves, doing what we are doing now was much more difficult.
The second deal was Uniswap. Almost everyone who had seen the Uniswap Series A financing round eventually gave up on the investment (at that time, Uniswap's final valuation was only $100 million—Uniswap was still very small back then). At the time, we were intensely debating whether AMM's capital efficiency was high enough, whether it would face excessive adverse selection, and whether it was vulnerable to forking. Paradigm passed (despite having led the seed round), we also passed, and to my knowledge, the other members of a16z's investment committee were also not interested in this deal.
But what about Chris? It's said that Chris said, "A smart contract that can buy and sell anything? That sounds awesome. Who knows what could happen—let's give it a try." And he was right. It really is cool. With the emergence of permissionless AMMs, all sorts of unexpected things will happen. Giving up the Series A funding taught me a profound lesson.
I disagree with a16z on many issues, but everyone in this industry should have genuine respect for Chris. He has done more than any other venture capitalist to elevate the crypto industry to its current cultural status, largely on his own. He has dedicated his life to promoting and legitimizing crypto in Washington, D.C., ultimately earning it cultural recognition as a positive frontier technology. Much of the language we now use around crypto directly originates from Chris.
Without Chris's strong early support, venture capital in cryptocurrencies would not have achieved what it has today. We sincerely appreciate his contributions.
And this leads us to the number one venture capitalist in history...
1st place: Kyle Samani (co-founder and managing partner of Multicoin Capital)
Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.
I often complain about Kyle. He always annoys a lot of people—including me. It's always been this way.
But investing is like a sport. In the end, you either score or you don't score at all.
And Kyle had the highest score among everyone. The huge profits he made from his investment in Solana's seed round, along with the tremendous effort he put into that deal, will one day be written into a book. I can guarantee that I'll frown throughout the entire time I read it.
Look, the best investors are contrarian investors. And Kyle is a true contrarian investor. Being a contrarian investor doesn't mean you write a popular article and have a bunch of people say, "Wow, that's really smart." If everyone wants to share your tweet, by definition, you're not a contrarian investor. You know you're a true contrarian investor when you anger people. When people think you're a fool. When they think you're wasting money.
Kyle is one of the few true contrarian investors in the cryptocurrency space. I almost disagree with all of his viewpoints. However, his initial investment and his steadfast belief in holding onto Solana through the trough after the FTX collapse have undoubtedly made him one of the greatest venture capitalists in cryptocurrency history.
We often say that venture capital follows a power law. Kyle and his legendary investment in Solana are a perfect example of this principle. Sometimes, it really just takes a single deal to achieve success.
And this is exactly why Kyle has become the best cryptocurrency venture capitalist in history.
That's my top three.
Sure! Please provide the
LP sometimes asks me who should be placed first on this list.
Although I have a very high opinion of myself—I am indeed quite conceited—I don't think I can rank in the top three. I'm definitely in the top ten, and possibly even the top five, but I certainly can't match any of these three individuals. I hope, before my career ends, I can one day surpass them. If we compare on a season-by-season basis, there are indeed some seasons in which my performance was better than each of theirs.
But overall? These three are the best in history.
Praising competitors doesn't do much for Dragonfly. But there's a deeper meaning behind the game. You see, it's very difficult to be an investor in this industry—I've found that most of my peers along the way haven't been able to stick it out. The cryptocurrency industry is fiercely competitive.
Although I compete with them every day, I have great respect for them. I have witnessed their continuous growth through the ups and downs of the past nearly ten years. We have weathered all the storms of the cryptocurrency industry together, supporting founders, supporting the industry, and helping it stand on equal footing with any other technology. As the year comes to an end, I feel it is necessary to pay tribute to them, because in this industry, venture capitalists are often rarely praised.
Whether they are aware of it or not, each of them has done a lot for me. I have learned a great deal from each of them. From the bottom of my heart, I hope they can take pride in the achievements they have made.
Dan Robinson has insight and foresight.
Chris Dixon was the first to insight.
Kyle Samani stays the course.
Greetings to all. Wishing for even more intense competition in the new year.