Almost two years in the past, Katie Haun left Andreessen Horowitz and raised two crypto funds totaling $1.5 billion. After which . . . a crypto market disaster occurred. At KryptoCoinz Disrupt, she seemed again at what occurred over the previous couple of years and confirmed that she’s nonetheless very optimistic about the way forward for crypto.
When Katie Haun was a normal associate at a16z, bitcoin was buying and selling at $65,000 and Sam Bankman-Fried was nonetheless on the helm of FTX. And Haun agrees that these issues set the area again significantly. Nevertheless it’s not a foul time to be a crypto investor.
“I feel there’s a notion on the market that crypto is crickets chirping. We discover ourselves very busy, however one of many issues we did do is we noticed this market correction, and we very purposely waited to make some deployments,” Katie Haun mentioned. “So I do know that is going to sound somewhat odd, however we really feel truly it’s a extremely good time to be investing within the area throughout this time.”
In keeping with her, there are just a few misconceptions about Haun Ventures. “I feel one other misperception is ‘Oh, wow, you raised it throughout a excessive market, nice timing, peak.’ Really, that was not the case,” Haun mentioned. “It was not a stroll within the park. Primary, crypto market cap had dropped 40% from its peak.”
“The opposite factor is notion of our fund is we’re one enormous, monumental $1.5 billion fund, and we’re not. We have now two funds. We have now an early stage fund, $500 million. We do A, B and C. After which we have now an acceleration fund, which backs all types of later stage initiatives in crypto.”
In relation to the bigger fund, Haun Ventures lately closed two offers with out saying them in two “iconic manufacturers” in crypto which might be rising quickly. Haun didn’t identify these firms.
With out giving any arduous numbers, Haun mentioned that her agency hasn’t deployed half of the bigger fund. “Of our earlier stage fund, it’s significantly lower than that,” she mentioned.
She has no remorse elevating $1.5 billion throughout her two funds. She thinks it’s the precise measurement and she or he believes Haun Ventures will stay dedicated to this kind of fund measurement in the long term.
“And by the way in which, I’m sitting right here publicly stating this on the file in a stage setting, even when the market is in an enormous crypto bull run, we don’t intend to extend our measurement. We expect we’ve picked our measurement and our technique for a motive,” Haun mentioned.
SEC would possibly want to come back again to Earth
When speaking in regards to the SEC and present regulatory issues about cryptocurrencies, Katie Haun expressed some sturdy opinions about a number of the choices which were made by the company.
“The legislation and the laws are determined on this nation by courts and by Congress. They’re not determined by impartial businesses. So simply because an company says one thing doesn’t actually make it the legislation. And I feel lots of people don’t notice that. And so we’ve seen businesses, sure branches of presidency — by the way in which, throughout totally different administrations too — get very, very concerned,” Haun mentioned.
Specifically, she criticized the present management. “I feel the SEC underneath [Gary Gensler] has actually taken a really expansive view of their jurisdiction in a approach that I feel, by the way in which, make no mistake, it’s not simply crypto, it’s on AI, it’s on local weather,” Haun mentioned.
“And I feel that’s a bit regarding, as a result of that’s not how our system is about up. And I feel that’s why you’ve began to see some federal judges beginning to say, ‘Wait a second, it is a step too far,’” she added.
“I feel what’s occurring now’s regulators must show that they’re the robust cop on the beat. They usually’re going after no matter they’ll, even when they may not finally prevail.”
The tip of FTX
As a former federal prosecutor, Katie Haun additionally had ideas about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX usually. She did meet him a few occasions at conferences.
“I used to be on staff Coinbase and the viewers was by and huge quite a lot of FTX supporters. The one different time — I feel I met him two or thrice — the one different time I shared a stage with him was behind closed doorways, so I received’t say an excessive amount of about it. However I can inform you additionally, I used to be speaking about authorities and there have been some awkward moments the place he was saying, oh, I used to be not registering,” she mentioned.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 21: (L-R) KryptoCoinz Basic Supervisor & Editor-In-Chief Connie Loizos and Haun Ventures Founder & CEO Katie Haun communicate onstage throughout KryptoCoinz Disrupt 2023 at Moscone Middle on September 21, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Picture Credit: Kimberly White/Getty Pictures for KryptoCoinz