Following the clues, guess what projects a16z with 15 billion USD will invest in?

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Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Azuma (@azuma_eth)

On January 9th, the venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), known for its active presence in the cryptocurrency market, announced the completion of a $15 billion new funding round. This is the largest fundraising in the institution’s history, accounting for over 18% of the total US venture capital funding in 2025.

In the relatively brief official announcement, a16z mentioned cryptocurrencies twice. The most critical sentence, “Our mission is to ensure that the US wins the technological competition of the next 100 years, starting with winning the key infrastructure of the future—artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency technology,” indicates that, with abundant ammunition, a16z will continue to expand its presence in the cryptocurrency market.

Six Major Focus Areas Breakdown

According to a16z’s plan, the funds will be allocated across six major directions: the American Dynamism Fund with $1.176 billion, the App Fund with $1.7 billion, the Bio + Health Fund with $700 million, the Infrastructure Fund with $1.7 billion, the Growth Fund with $6.75 billion, and the Other Venture Strategies Fund with $3 billion.

Although a16z did not explicitly plan a dedicated cryptocurrency fund in this fundraising, these six areas have significant overlaps with cryptocurrencies.

First is the American Dynamism Fund, a strategic direction promoted by a16z in recent years with a clear “politicized” tone. Its core goal is to rebuild America’s “hard power” and national competitiveness through venture capital. This fund mainly invests in aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chains, industry, and manufacturing—objectively, its intersection with cryptocurrencies is limited.

Next is the App Fund, one of a16z’s most traditional and VC-oriented funds. Its core goal is to focus on application-layer products directly usable by users. It mainly invests in consumer internet products, AI applications, creator tools, social platforms, content services, gaming, fintech, and Web3 applications—this is also the area where a16z’s cryptocurrency narrative is most easily realized.

Then there is the Bio + Health Fund, a long-term bet outside of “pure technology,” aiming to transform life sciences and healthcare systems with software, data, and engineering thinking. Its main investment areas include biotech, drug development platforms, gene editing, synthetic biology, medical data and AI diagnostics, and healthcare infrastructure software. While this area has limited direct overlap with cryptocurrencies, DeSci (Decentralized Science) could become a potential intersection.

The Infrastructure Fund focuses on infrastructure, aiming to provide an indispensable technological foundation for next-generation applications and platforms. Its main investment areas include cloud computing and distributed systems, AI infrastructure, data platforms, developer tools, network protocols, and blockchain layer-1, layer-2, and other underlying protocols—this is another core battlefield for a16z in the crypto space besides the App Fund.

The Growth Fund mainly targets Series C and pre-IPO stages. Its core goal is not to find new opportunities but to amplify returns by supporting proven winners. It mainly invests in mature tech companies, AI platforms, fintech unicorns, and established Web3 infrastructure or applications. According to a16z’s official website, Coinbase, Kalshi, and others are explicitly categorized here.

The Other Venture Strategies Fund is relatively unique. It does not focus on a single theme but acts more like a flexible “tactical fund,” often used for special structured transactions, cross-fund co-investments, emerging field testing, secondary market opportunities, regional or thematic experimental funds, etc. While it has limited direct overlap with cryptocurrencies, it may occasionally be involved in responsive actions during certain policy windows.

Looking at these six proposed directions for the $15 billion fund, the App Fund, Infrastructure Fund, and Growth Fund will be the main channels for a16z’s primary investments in the crypto market. The App and Infrastructure Funds will focus more on native application-layer and protocol-layer projects, respectively; while the Growth Fund will tend to focus on exchange platforms, prediction markets, and similar services, favoring leading players with established advantages.

By 2025, a16z’s Investment Review

According to Odaily Planet Daily’s estimates, a16z made a total of 31 moves in the broader crypto space over the past year, including two investments each in prediction market Kalshi, AI security firm Doppel, and privacy blockchain Seismic. Notably, with Kalshi, a16z first co-led a $300 million Series D funding round in October with Sequoia, valuing the company at $5 billion; then in November, it participated again at a $11 billion valuation in a $1 billion Series E round. This was a16z’s largest crypto bet last year.

From the data, aside from heavy bets on prediction markets, wallet services, privacy blockchains, stablecoins, and cross-over opportunities between AI and cryptocurrencies are key areas of focus for a16z in 2025. These segments can be categorized into blockchain layer protocols and tools covered by the Infrastructure Fund, and fintech, AI applications, etc., covered by the App Fund.

a16z’s 2026 Outlook

On New Year’s Day 2026, a16z Crypto published a New Year outlook article. In it, a16z mentioned 17 potential developments exciting for 2026, which may reveal the firm’s strategic focus for the future.

These 17 potential developments are:

Privacy will become the most critical moat in the crypto space;

Prediction markets will grow bigger, broader, and smarter;

Thinking about real-world asset tokenization and stablecoins in a more “crypto-native” way;

Trading is just a transit point for crypto services, not the final destination;

From “Know Your Customer” (KYC) to “Know Your Agent”;

Better, smarter stablecoin deposit and withdrawal channels;

Stablecoins will trigger an upgrade cycle for banking ledgers and create new payment scenarios;

The future of instant messaging will be not only quantum-resistant but also decentralized;

Moving from “Code is Law” to “Norms are Law”;

Cryptography is providing a new type of primitive that can transcend blockchain itself;

We are now capable of conducting substantive research tasks using AI;

The “invisible tax” in open internet ecosystems;

The rise of Staked Media;

“Secrets-as-a-Service”;

Wealth management for everyone;

The internet is becoming a bank;

When legal frameworks finally align with technological architectures, the full potential of blockchain will be unleashed.

Among these 17 potential developments, some explicitly mention specific business models, including privacy, prediction markets, stablecoins, and AI—areas where a16z has already focused its efforts. The firm also suggests optimization paths for related models, such as smarter stablecoin deposit and withdrawal solutions.

Meanwhile, some of these developments are more speculative, imagining a future where the internet becomes a bank. How these visions will materialize remains unclear, as a16z offers no concrete answers. This challenge is left to entrepreneurs capable of delivering innovative solutions—precisely the target that a16z’s $150 billion is eager to find.