Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm is pushing forward with a new $2 billion fund despite a prolonged market slump. A16z Crypto is raising its fifth crypto-focused vehicle and aims to close the fund by mid-2026, Fortune reported, citing anonymous sources.
The target is much smaller than the $4.5 billion crypto fund A16z closed in 2022. The firm has shifted to a shorter fundraising cadence to stay nimble as narratives in crypto evolve. The move comes amidst a bear market that has erased more than $2 trillion from the sector’s peak market capitalization of roughly $4.4 trillion in early October.
A16z Crypto’s strategy has been shaped by partner Chris Dixon’s Web3 vision of a decentralized internet and blockchain-native applications, described in his 2024 book Read Write Own. Still, several high-profile investments have faltered. Decentralized social rival Farcaster sold off infrastructure in January and returned about $180 million to investors.
Many crypto-focused investors are narrowing their focus toward use cases such as stablecoins, tokenization of real-world assets, and financial products. Some firms are branching into other technologies: Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani stepped down in February to pursue areas including AI, longevity, and robotics, and Paradigm is reportedly expanding into AI and robotics with a fundraise target near $1.5 billion.
In January A16z itself raised over $15 billion to back companies it deems crucial for America’s future, spanning AI and crypto as well as sectors like biology, defense, education and entertainment.
A16z has called out crypto and AI as major themes for 2026, predicting AI-driven automation in cybersecurity, AI models functioning as app stores, privacy becoming a key competitive moat in crypto, broader and smarter prediction markets, and deeper integration of stablecoins with traditional banking and finance.
Fundraising data show the sector remains subdued: DeFiLlama’s raises aggregator reported crypto startups pulled in $895 million in February, down nearly 40% from $1.47 billion in January and slightly below the roughly $1 billion raised in February 2025. Overall crypto venture funding has plunged since October.
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