Morning Minute: a16z Raises $15B, Targets AI & Crypto

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack. GM! Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors flat over the weekend; BTC at $90,600
• XMR jumps to $600 overnight and new ATH, up 33% on week
• Jerome Powell releases message claiming charges are due to his not complying with Trump, gold+silver spike
• a16z raises $15M across funds to invest in America’s future, AI & crypto at forefront
• X announces plans for Smart Cashtags, showing live charts along with tickers

💰 a16z Reloads With $15B, Targets AI & Crypto a16z is back with its biggest fundraise ever. And crypto is at the forefront. 📌 What Happened Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced it raised over $15B across multiple new funds, one of the largest VC fundraises in years. Per a16z’s own breakdown, the raise includes: Growth ($6.75B), Apps ($1.7B), Infrastructure ($1.7B), American Dynamism ($1.176B), Bio + Health ($700M), plus $3B in other strategies. For historical context, a16z has been a top crypto allocator for years, raising dedicated vehicles including:

• $300M for its first crypto fund (2018)
• $515M Crypto Fund II (2020)
• $2.2B Crypto Fund III (2021)
• $4.5B Crypto Fund IV (2022), including $1.5B seed + $3B venture

Some of their notable investments across that time include Coinbase, Solana, Uniswap, OpenSea, and Phantom, plus more recent deals like Kalshi and EigenLayer. 🗣️ What They’re Saying “As the American leader in venture capital, the fate of new technology in the United States rests partly on our shoulders. Our mission is ensuring that America wins the next 100 years of technology.” - Ben Horowitz, a16z cofounder 🧠 Why It Matters It’s interesting to take a peek under the hood here to see what a16z is investing in, to get a glimpse of their view of the future:

• AI infrastructure: a16z is leaning into compute, tooling, and platform layers that will power the next decade of software
• “American Dynamism”: defense, housing, supply chains, and other “national interest” categories
• Infrastructure + Apps: the picks-and-shovels layer that can survive multiple market cycles (and typically captures value even when narratives rotate).

For crypto specifically, it’s:

• more stablecoin and payments rails
• more tokenized assets and settlement
• more infrastructure that can onboard institutions
• more crypto x AI convergence

It may be a bit “boring,” but that’s likely an apt way to discuss this next phase of crypto. We’re set up for a boring maturity phase. Stablecoin adoption, tokenized asset adoption and more institutional infrastructure. The biggest wildcard is how crypto and AI will converge and what investment opportunities will arise from it. We will be watching closely… 

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets A few headlines that stood out:

• Crypto majors are mostly flat headed into Monday open; 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 movers; XMR hit a new ATH at $590
• Fed Chair Jerome Powell released a video message claiming that the criminal charges he faces are due to his not cutting interest rates in line with Trump’s wishes
• X (Twitter) announced plans for “Smart Cashtags” to show crypto and stock prices live next to tickers
• VanEck projected Bitcoin could reach $53M by 2050, outlining long-term adoption, trade settlement and store-of-value assumptions driving 29% annual growth
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) raised $15B to fund American Dynanism, 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-native clients
• A new House bill would bar lawmakers and federal officials from using prediction markets
• Tether froze $182M in USDT linked to Venezuela oil trades

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

• **The BTC ETFs **saw another $250M in net outflows on Friday, now with 4 straight days of outflows

In Memes / Onchain Movers

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

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• **Pump Fun **teased changes to their creator fee sharing, changing coin creation incentives
• **Infinex **closed their ICO with 44% oversubscription
• Trove completed its ICO with $11.5M raised, and an extension that went live then was walked back; TGE will occur on Jan 20th
• Rekt Drinks’ World Star Cherry Cola sale goes live today at 1 pm ET
• Rain announced a $250M raise at $1.95B valuation to expand its stablecoin service

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were slightly green over the 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%), Genuine Undead (+28%) and Chimpers (+28%) **led top movers
• A Spirit Azuki sold for 28 ETH ($87,500)