Morning Minute: a16z Raises $15 Billion, Focuses on AI and Crypto

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analyzes and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s most important news:

• Crypto Majors Flat Over the Weekend; BTC at $90,600
• XMR jumps to $600 and new ATH overnight, up 33% on a weekly basis
• Jerome Powell Publishes Post Claiming Charges Are Due To Trump’s Noncompliance, Gold + Silver Peak
• a16z raises $15 million through funds to invest in America’s future, with AI and crypto at the forefront
• X announces plans for Smart Cashtags, which show live charts and tickers

💰 a16z reloads with $15 billion, focuses on AI and Crypto

a16z is back with its largest fundraiser ever.

And crypto is leading the way.

📌What happened

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced it has raised more than $15 billion through multiple new funds, one of the largest venture capital fundraisings in years.

According to a16z’s own analysis, the increase includes: growth ($6.75 billion), apps ($1.7 billion), infrastructure ($1.7 billion), American dynamism ($1.176 billion), organic + health ($700 million), plus $3 billion in other strategies.

For historical context, a16z has been one of the top crypto allocators for years, with specialty vehicles including:

• $300 million for its first crypto fund (2018)
• $515 Million Crypto Fund II (2020)
• $2.2 billion Crypto Fund III (2021)
• $4.5 billion Crypto Fund IV (2022), including $1.5 billion seed capital + $3 billion enterprise

Some of their notable investments during that time include Coinbase, Solana, Uniswap, OpenSea and Phantom, plus more recent deals like Kalshi and EigenLayer.

🗣️ What they say

“As America’s leader in venture capital, the fate of new technology in the United States rests in part on our shoulders. Our mission is to ensure that America wins the next 100 years of technology.” – Ben Horowitz, co-founder of a16z

🧠Why it matters

It’s interesting to take a look under the hood here to see what a16z is investing in, to get a glimpse of their view of the future:

• AI infrastructure: a16z leans on compute, tooling and platform layers that will power the next decade of software
• ‘American Dynamism’: Defense, Housing, Supply Chains and Other Categories of ‘National Interest’
• Infrastructure + Apps: The pick-and-shovels layer that can survive multiple market cycles (and typically captures value even as stories change).

Specific to crypto it is:

• more stable coins and payment rails
• more tokenized assets and settlement
• more infrastructure that can get institutions on board
• more crypto x AI convergence

It may be a bit ‘boring’, but that’s probably an appropriate way to discuss this next phase of crypto. We are ready for a boring adulthood phase.

Stable coin adoption, tokenized asset adoption, and more institutional infrastructure.

The biggest wildcard is how crypto and AI will converge and what investment opportunities will result. We will keep a close eye on it…

🌎 Macrocrypto and markets

A few headlines that stood out:

• Crypto majors are usually open flat on Mondays; BTC even at $90,600; ETH +1% at $3,110, SOL +2% at $140; XRP -2% to $2.04
• IP (+20%) and XMR (+15%) led top gainers; XMR reached a new ATH at $590
• Fed Chairman Jerome Powell released a video message claiming that the criminal charges he is facing are due to his failure to lower interest rates in accordance with Trump’s wishes
• X (Twitter) announced plans for “Smart Cashtags” to display crypto and stock quotes alongside tickers
• VanEck projected Bitcoin could reach $53 million by 2050, outlining assumptions about long-term adoption, trade settlement and storage of value that drive its 29% annual growth
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) increased $15 billion to fund American dynism, with AI and crypto at the forefront
• Ripple received FCA approval to scale crypto payments in the UK
• BNY Mellon debuted tokenized deposits for institutional and digital clients
• A new bill from the House of Representatives would stand in the way of this prevent lawmakers and federal officials from using prediction markets
• Tether froze $182 million in USDT linked to Venezuela’s oil trade

In corporate bonds/ETFs

• The BTC ETFs saw another $250 million in net outflows on Friday, now with 4 consecutive days of outflows

In Memes / Onchain movers

• Meme majors were usually red; Doge -3%, Shiba -3%, PEPE -2%, Bonk -2%, Pengu -2%, WIF -3% and Fartcoin -4%
• Testicle was a top player in the chain, jumping 20% ​​to $20 million; Ralph Wiggum (+125%), SPSC (+45%) and SOL (+23%) led other notable onchain movers

💰 Token, airdrop and protocol tracker

• Pump fun plagued changes to sharing their maker fees, thus changing the incentives for coin creation
• Infinex Closed their ICO with 44% oversubscription
• Trove completed its ICO with $11.5 million raised, and an extension that went live was dropped; TGE will take place on January 20th
• Rekt Drinks’ World Star Cherry Cola sale goes live today at 1:00 PM ET
• Rain announced a $250 million raise at a $1.95 billion valuation to expand its stablecoin service

🚚 What’s happening in NFTs?

• The NFT leaders were somewhat green this weekend; Punks even at 28.8 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.83 ETH and BAYC +1% at 5.38 ETH; Hypurr -3% to 514 HYPE
• Good Vibes Club (+26%), Real Undead (+28%) and Chimpers (+28%) top movers
• A ghost Azuki sold for 28 ETH ($87,500)