Plus, Terra buys $10B of bitcoin
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Former federal prosecutor and a16z partner Katie Haun has raised $1.5B for her new venture capital firm to invest in crypto startups. The fund appears to be the largest fund ever raised by a solo venture capitalist. The firm will deploy the $1.5B through two funds. - $500M to invest in early-stage startups
- $1B to invest in later stage Web3 companies
More: - The fund's LPs include Haun's former employer, Andreessen Horowitz, along with university endowments, charitable foundations, and family offices.
- The firm will invest directly in digital tokens, as well as equity deals with startups building in areas like DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs.
- The firm will seek to become a registered investment advisor to remove limits on the percentage of fund capital that can be used for token purchases.
Katie Haun's path into crypto: - Haun first learned about bitcoin in 2013 while working at the Justice Department pursuing criminals that were using it.
- She helped the government buy bitcoin while working undercover.
- Huan created the federal government's first cryptocurrency task force and led the investigation into the Mt. Goz hack.
- In 2017 she joined Coinbase's board before meeting Chis Dixon and moving on to a16z.
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Goldman Sachs traded a bitcoin-linked instrument called a non-deliverable option with crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, making it the first recorded over-the-counter crypto trade by a U.S. bank. The move is a significant step toward institutionalizing crypto markets. More: - Goldman is taking on greater risk by acting as the principal in the transaction.
- Hedge funds have been seeking derivative exposure to bitcoin to either bet on its price or hold it directly.
- The market for these derivatives previously could only come from crypto-native firms like Galaxy.
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Terra (Luna)'s founder, Do Kwon, announced that his company would be purchasing $10B worth of bitcoin to serve as a reserve currency for its stablecoin UST. Before this asset purchase, UST was algorithmically backed by Luna and susceptible to a bank run. More: - Now, if there does happen to be a bank run, Terra can sell BTC instead of LUNA.
- UST has a market cap of ~$15B.
- The tie-in with the bitcoin community could create significant network effects to help grow UST.
- Terra will give the bitcoin ecosystem a great Layer 2 style user experience and exposure to DeFi and Anchor protocol.
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The world's largest hedge fund, Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates, is preparing to back its first crypto fund. Bridgewater claims to have no intention of investing in crypto assets directly. More: - Ray Dalio personally bought bitcoin in May 2021.
- The position is rumored to only be a small portion of Bridgewater's $150B AUM.
- One person familiar with the matter divulged that Bridgewater does plan to deploy a small portion of its fund directly into digital assets sometime in 2022.
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 |  | Trevor Grant is an entrepreneur, investor, and writer based out of Chicago, Illinois. His primary area of interest is web3 venture capital, social tokens, and infrastructure. Other pursuits include screenwriting, yoga, and traveling. He holds a BS in biomedical engineering. Connect with him on Twitter @trevorisonline |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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