In 2018, Andreessen Horowitz made a splash in the venture capital world by launching a spinoff dedicated to digital assets called a16z Crypto. Eight years later—perhaps recognizing that the term “crypto” has fallen out of favor—the VC giant announced Thursday that it was rebranding to a16z Frontier, and expanding its scope to back startups developing artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies.
Managing partner Chris Dixon will lead the fund alongside Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and general partners Eddy Lazzarin and Guy Wuollet. The shift expands the scope of its $2.2 billion fund announced in May, though the firm will continue backing crypto startups and advocating for crypto regulation.
As more businesses use blockchain technology behind the scenes, the distinction between crypto companies and other businesses is becoming less clear, Dixon wrote in an X article.
“Does that make them crypto companies? The label matters less now,” he said.
A16z Crypto general partner Ali Yahya has told some investors he plans to depart to launch a startup, according to The Information. His tenure dates to 2017, when he became the first person working full-time on the firm’s crypto team.
The firm had begun investing beyond crypto before Thursday’s announcement. In June, a16z Crypto led a $33 million seed round for Ornn, a company developing financial products for the AI computing market. In October 2025, Andreessen Horowitz co-led a funding round for prediction market Kalshi.
The move follows similar expansions by other prominent crypto investors. When Paradigm announced its $1.2 billion fund in July, it said its investment approach had started in crypto but would now extend to artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies. In May, Haun Ventures founder Katie Haun announced $1 billion in new funds. In her written announcement, Haun said that building financial services from the ground up “includes crypto, but is bigger than that tool set alone.” The firm instead increased its focus on other sectors, like emerging payments models and the agentic economy.
When Andreessen Horowitz first debuted a16z Crypto, it raised a $350 million investment fund with an original mission to acquire crypto assets and back projects built on blockchain technology.
The firm went on to raise increasingly large crypto funds, including a $4.5 billion vehicle in 2022. Its latest $2.2 billion fund brought the total raised across five funds to $9.8 billion. Some of the firm’s most successful investments included decentralized exchange Uniswap and crypto custodian Anchorage Digital.
Thursday’s news marked a reversal from a statement an a16z crypto spokesperson gave Fortune in May, saying its fifth fund was “100% dedicated to investing in crypto entrepreneurs,” even as rival firms had already begun expanding into artificial intelligence and other sectors.
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