I Can Haz Prosecushons?

A16Z is still lying to investors as it tries to offload its cryptocurrency investments:

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”) has invested billions in crypto, raising four separate crypto funds: $350 million in 2018, $515 million in 2020, $2.2 billion in 2021, and $4.5 billion in 2022. Needless to say, they have a strong incentive to evangelize crypto at all costs, regardless of what’s actually happening in the industry.

They spent much of crypto’s most recent bull run endlessly talking up crypto, with general partners like Chris Dixon writing long, starry-eyed blog posts about “why web3 matters”, going on podcasts to preach the gospel, and lashing out at critics.

He did a better job on the podcasts than partner Marc Andreessen or advisor Packy McCormick, but they… well, they tried. A16z launched an entire “web3 with a16z crypto” podcast and “web3 weekly” newsletter, claiming to “cut through all the noise and share the signals that matter”, but instead nakedly evangelizing in hopes of luring in the next greater fool.

………

But reading Andreessen Horowitz’s newest State of Crypto report, one wonders if they exist in a parallel universe where the recent “crypto winter” never came to pass.

The truth is that Andreessen Horowitz needs crypto to do well. With an asset class so dependent on sentiment for value, they seem to be hoping that if they can convince both their investors and the general public that everything is going just great and crypto prices are about to take off again, they can cause it to become true.

The result of this approach is an incredibly shameless piece of propaganda showing the extents to which Andreessen Horowitz is willing to manipulate facts and outright lie, hoping to turn the sentiment on the crypto industry back to where retail investors were providing substantial pools of liquidity with which they could line their pockets. If anyone still believes that venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz are powerful sources of innovation and societal benefit, I hope this will give them pause.

I think that having Andreesen and Horowitz frog-marched out of the corporate offices in handcuffs would give them pause.