Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new, $2.2 billion fund to invest in cryptocurrency, stating that they are "radically optimistic about crypto's potential."
The firm, founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, is known for being an early investor in companies such as Facebook and Instagram. It now plans on investing in cryptocurrency, which it sees as the future of finance and a highly influential technology.
"We believe that the next wave of computing innovation will be driven by crypto," firm partners Katie Haun, Ali Yahoo, and Chris Dixon wrote in a blog post.
The post outlines the firm's reasoning for investing in cryptocurrency, and names new experts it has brought on board to help determine where best to invest the funds. Among the names is Rachael Horwitz, Coinbase's former Vice President of Communications.
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $60,000 in April before losing nearly half its value in the following months. Yet, Andreessen Horowitz remains optimistic.
"We've been investing in crypto assets since 2013 and are more excited today about what comes next than ever before," the blog post continues. "The history of crypto shows that asset prices may fluctuate but innovation continues to increase through each cycle."
While Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies saw widespread adoption in 2020 and 2021, cryptocurrency markets have been especially volatile in recent months.
In May, Tesla stopped accepting BitCoin as a method of payment and was believed to drop the market as much as 15%.
The Chinese government continues to crack down on crypto as well, banning cryptocurrency from institutional use in mid-May of 2021.
The U.S. government has also begun taking steps to mitigate potential problems relating to cryptocurrency, announcing plans to tighten regulations on cryptocurrency markets and holders.
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