a16z crypto show

We're announcing a16z crypto's Fund 5: $2.2B in committed capital to back the startups and founders who are building the next era of crypto. All four GPs sat down to talk through where crypto is right now, what's changed, and where it may be headed next. Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya, Guy Wuollet, and Eddy Lazzarin join Robert Hackett to cover...

00:00 Open 
01:31 Why raise Crypto Fund 5 now 
02:10 The GENIUS Act and what regulatory clarity unlocks for builders 
04:32 Why stablecoins are crypto's WhatsApp moment 
08:54 Why the next era of crypto founders will be pragmatic, not ideo...

Agents can now do almost anything a human can do with a computer. So what happens when they start spending money on your behalf?

Sam Ragsdale (founder and CEO of Merit Systems, a startup building infrastructure for the agentic economy) joins a16z crypto's Eddy Lazzarin, Noah Levine, and Robert Hackett on the open agentic commerce stack, and why the internet's business model is about to get rewired.

00:00 – Intro 
01:33 – Two flavors of agentic commerce 
04:30 – What is an agent, actually? 
12:57 – The headless merchant thesis 
17:17 – What happens to existing friction? 
24:45 – The economic contract of the w...

A few big companies control most of the infrastructure behind AI.

Most people experience AI through a wide range of different apps that actually depend on a deeply centralized stack of data and compute. In this conversation, Ben Fielding and Harry Grieve — cofounders of decentralized machine learning protocol Gensyn — explain why this matters, and what it would take to rebuild AI as open infrastructure instead.

From unused global compute to the philosophical implications of machine intelligence, they argue that the next evolution of AI must be owned, coordinated, and verified in a fundamentally different way.

The internet already has a bot problem — and it's just getting worse.

a16z's Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg speak with Alex Blania of Tools for Humanity. World is building the largest real human network, a proof-of-human layer for the AI era. They cover the technical challenge of proving human uniqueness at scale using iris biometrics, the privacy architecture behind World ID, and why platforms from social networks to dating apps to video conferencing will soon require proof of human verification.

Timestamps: 

What if the future of lending doesn’t need banks at all?

Paul Frambot, cofounder and CEO of Morpho, explains what it means to build lending infrastructure without banks, and why DeFi’s real breakthrough isn’t “risk-free” loans, but open, onchain markets that make lending more transparent, competitive, and efficient.

In this conversation, Paul breaks down the biggest misconception in DeFi lending, how to think about risk onchain, why institutions are learning faster than expected, and where banks, asset managers, fintechs, and stablecoins fit into the next wave of adoption.

He also shares his...

What if opening a trading account was as easy as downloading an app? 

Lucas Bruder, CEO of Jito — a Solana-based liquid staking protocol — breaks down why he thinks all of finance is moving onchain, and what his small team is doing to make that happen. 

During the 2022-2023 bear market, Jito was getting pitched constantly to jump ship to other chains. Lucas explains why they turned everything down, doubled down on Solana, and chewed a lot of glass. 

We also cover how Jito acts like a Cloudflare for Solana, why cheap transactions create surpris...

Should we push AI forward as fast as possible, or be more careful about how it develops? 

Two competing views are emerging: 

In this episode of the a16z crypto show, Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum founder) and Guillaume Verdon aka "Beff Jezos" (Extropic founder & CEO,) join Eddy Lazzarin (a16z crypto CTO) and Shaw Walters (Eliza Labs founder) for a deep debate about these two perspectives and what they mean for AI, cr...

What does the future of the creator economy actually look like? The economics of content creation are changing, what happens to copyright in a world of abundant generated content, and why human taste, curation, and connection may matter even more going forward. 

In this episode, host Robert Hackett talks with Justin (CEO, Bond) and Michael Blau(Head of Product, Bond) about the changing relationship between creators, audiences, platforms, and technology. 

They unpack how today’s platforms shape creator behavior, why audience relationships are often trapped inside algorithms, and what a more direct creator-fan connection could look...

Four years ago, artist Emily Yang aka pplpleasr began a creative journey that would help break new ground at the intersection of art, technology, and community. 

In this episode, we sit down with Emily — founder of Shibuya — to talk about her evolution from illustrator to Emmy-winning storyteller. 

Emily shares how Shibuya is pioneering “permissionless creativity,” using crypto rails to fund, build, and co-create original IP with global communities. Her breakout project, White Rabbit, became the first crypto-native project to win an Emmy (Outstanding Innovation in Emerging Media), proving that grassroots storytelling can reach mainstream acclaim. We dive into...

A hot paper — "Some Simple Economics of AGI" — has been making the rounds, so we sat down with the author, covering: 

Featuring Christian Catalini (founder of MIT Crypto Economics Lab) and Eddy Lazzarin (CTO of a16z crypto) in conversation with Rob...

What does it actually mean to bring assets onchain — and why should investors care? 

In this episode, Cynthia Lo Bessette, Head of Digital Asset Management at Fidelity Investments, breaks down Fidelity’s roadmap for digital market adoption — from Bitcoin ETPs to tokenized money market funds — and explains why tokenization is about far more than just putting assets on a blockchain. 

We cover: 

What happens when AI becomes the primary economic actor? 

In this conversation, Sean Neville (cofounder of Circle, architect of USDC, and now cofounder of Catena Labs) shares his vision for the next phase of the internet: an agent-native economy powered by programmable dollars and AI banks. 

As stablecoins put dollars on internet rails, a new question emerges: what happens when AI agents start earning, spending, lending, investing — and even managing our assets — on our behalf? 

From KYA (“Know Your Agent”) to programmable spending policies to secure agent communication standards, this conversation explores the foundationa...

Restaurants generated more than a trillion dollars in sales last year — but they don’t control the payment rails those dollars flow through.

In this episode, Ben Leventhal (founder of Eater, Resy, and now Blackbird) joins Robert Hackett to explain why that’s a problem, how loyalty and payments have failed independent restaurants, and where crypto fits into fixing it.

Ben breaks down:

with @zcabrams @rhackett

What happens when money moves 10x — or 100x — faster than it does today?

In this episode, Zach Abrams, cofounder and CEO of Bridge (now part of Stripe), lays out a bold vision for the future of money: a world where stablecoins become the dominant payment rail, most transactions happen between non-human agents, and entirely new financial infrastructure is required to keep up.

Zach explains why stablecoins are the next evolution of fintech, much like credit cards were decades ago — and why we’re still in the very early innings. We dig into...

with @alive_eth @rhackett

a16z crypto General Partner Ali Yahya explains why privacy — not performance — will determine the long-term winners in crypto, and how it creates powerful network effects. 

In conversation with a16z crypto show host Robert Hackett, Ali lays out how privacy creates lock-in and winner-take-most dynamics — without sacrificing decentralization. They also dive into the technologies making privacy possible today, from zero-knowledge proofs to trusted execution environments, and why financial use cases will drive mainstream adoption first.

They cover:

with @PalmerLuckey @cdixon

In this special episode — our 100th on the a16z crypto show! — Chris Dixon interviews Palmer Luckey (founder of Anduril; founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift) to talk about the future of technology, belief, and building.

What does it take to build hardware at scale? Where are many of today’s tech bottlenecks? And what's the case for optimism about the future despite growing geopolitical turmoil, regulatory constraints, and other blockers to innovation? The candid, wide-ranging conversation covers crypto, banking, and stablecoins, as well as modern warfare, the U.S.–C...

with @ccatalini @rhackett

Today we’re talking about who — if anyone — should own the rails of global money.

Our guest is Christian Catalini, cofounder and chief strategy officer of the global payments startup Lightspark, and a former architect of Meta’s shuttered Libra project — one of the most ambitious attempts to create a corporate-backed digital currency.

In this episode, we talk about…

Christian also wrote a feature for us expan...

with @PrimordialAA @rhackett

In this episode, host Robert Hackett sits down with Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZero, one of the core infrastructure projects that enables blockchains to talk to one another. We talk about why crypto went multichain, what it means for crypto to compete with legacy financial systems, and a lesson Bryan took firsthand from Elon Musk. We also get into Bryan’s background as a professional poker player, and how that has shaped his views on competition, conviction, and focus.

We go deep on founder psychology:
– When founders must replace earl...

with @LairdLife @GabbyReece @AriannaSimpson

Today's episode features two people who’ve spent their careers performing at the highest levels in sport and business: big-wave surfing pioneer Laird Hamilton and former pro volleyball star Gabby Reece. 

They join a16z crypto General Partner Arianna Simpson for a conversation that explores what it takes to endure and excel over decades — how to get back up after setbacks, when to push versus change course, and how to build resilience and adaptability. They also get into stress, burnout, intuition, and why experience and self-care matter as much as data.

...

with @smc90 @rhackett @stephbzinn @Tim_Org

In a now-annual tradition, the a16z crypto editorial team discuss themes (and picks) from a16z crypto's latest reading lists, as well as books we keep re-reading, childhood favorites, classics, adaptations on adaptations — in book and movie form! — and much more.

We cover:

with @BChillman @jay_drainjr @rhackett

Crypto wallets are no longer just wallets. They’re the front door to a decentralized internet.

In this episode, Phantom CEO Brandon Millman joins a16z crypto Investment Partner Jay Drain and host Robert Hackett to unpack how crypto wallets are evolving into full-blown consumer finance platforms — and why they may be the most credible candidates to become the internet's next super apps.

We explore Phantom’s journey from a Solana-first wallet to a multi-chain platform, why wallets are uniquely positioned to win trust around money, and how featur...

with @zcabrams @psneville @rhackett

In this episode, Robert Hackett sits down with Sean Neville, cofounder of Circle and co-creator of the USDC stablecoin, and Zach Abrams, founder of Bridge (now part of Stripe), for a deep dive into the real story behind stablecoins, finding product-market fit, and the future of payments infrastructure.

They explore the earliest days of USDC — when stablecoins were far from obvious and regulatory frameworks didn’t exist. Sean shares how his conviction in “money running at internet speed” helped shape a multibillion-dollar asset. Zach recounts Bridge’s pivot from NFTs to stablecoin...

Every traditional financial institution faces the same dilemma: evolve or fall behind, build or buy. But when safety, predictability, and trust is paramount, how do traditional finance companies innovate? How do they place their innovation bets, and decide what to explore and not to explore? 

Fidelity Chairman and CEO Abigail P. Johnson shares an inside look into Fidelity’s decade of crypto experimentation -- from early Bitcoin mining to building foundational custody infrastructure to stablecoins and much more. Johnson shares how Fidelity explored dozens of crypto use cases; why only one initially mattered, and how a single foo...

with @cdixon @illscience

Welcome to web3 with a16z crypto. Today’s episode digs into the forces shaping the next generation of consumer software — from AI-driven tools to the new economics of apps.

Joining is Chris Dixon, a16z crypto founder and managing partner and one of the firm’s original consumer investors. He sits down with a16z General Partner Anish Acharya to explore how exponential forces — like Moore’s Law, composability, and network effects — help determine which products ultimately win.

They talk about what it takes to build enduring consumer apps, how tools ev...

with @mansourtarek_ @rhackett

In this episode of web3 with a16z crypto, host Robert Hackett talks with Kalshi Cofounder and CEO Tarek Mansour about how prediction markets are enabling people to trade directly on real-world events — from elections to inflation — and what this means for the future of finance and forecasting.

Tarek explains why prediction markets aren’t gambling, how regulation has been central to Kalshi’s success, and why the company is embracing crypto and stablecoins as key components of its international strategy. He also discusses lessons learned about policy, product design, and staying complian...

with @DavidSacks @pmarca @bhorowitz @eriktorenberg

Today’s episode features David Sacks, the Trump administration’s “AI and crypto czar," in conversation with a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and General Partner Erik Torenberg.

They dig into:

This episode is a special crossover with the a16z podcast, which you can follow f...

with @DarenMatsuoka @eddylazzarin

Today, we’re bringing you something special: a presentation from our 2025 Founders Summit, which we just wrapped last week in beautiful Carlsbad, Calif. You’ll hear from Daren Matsuoka, our Head of Data and Fund Strategy, as he walks through the insights from this year’s State of Crypto report — our deep-dive into the data, themes, and signals shaping the industry right now.

Stay through to the end for audience Q&A featuring our founders and to hear a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin share his takes on this year’s findings. To watch t...

with @DarenMatsuoka @eddylazzarin @rhhackett

Each year, the State of Crypto report analyzes the data — cutting through the noise — to track crypto’s evolution across markets, technology, policy, culture, and more. Now in its fourth edition, the 2025 State of Crypto report reveals how this once-fringe technology has hit recent all-time highs and gone mainstream — from stablecoins and tokenized assets to rapid adoption by major financial institutions.

In this episode, we dig into the findings and themes from this year’s report with lead author Daren Matsuoka, a16z crypto’s head of data and fund strategy; and Eddy Laz...

Prediction markets are a hot topic again — even cartoon characters are talking about them (South Park). But beyond the buzz, what is a prediction market, exactly? How do they work, how are they designed, and what makes them work?

We answer all these questions and more in this deep-dive featuring experts Alex Tabarrok (professor of economics at George Mason University) and Scott Kominers (a16z crypto research partner and Harvard Business School professor), in conversation with Sonal Chokshi.

While we originally covered this topic during last year’s election, the discussion is more relevant than ever...

with @AriannaSimpson @jacqmelinek

Crypto is known for its high and low market cycles: What must founders know — and what can they do — to survive the swings?

In this episode, we unpack the lessons of past crypto cycles and how they shape the current wave of building — from stablecoins to AI x crypto. We also dive into the founder journey: from raising money and staying committed in 2025, to handling copycat competitors, cofounder disputes, growing too fast (or slowly), and more.

You'll hear from a16z crypto General Partner Arianna Simpson, who has spent over a deca...

with @eddylazzarin @milesjennings @JasonYanowitz

Welcome to web3 with a16z crypto. Today’s episode is on a super timely topic: How to design, govern, and grow decentralized networks in today’s changing policy landscape. It covers:

with @nayafia and @smc90 

Ideas, memes, and vibes are some of the most important drivers of modern technology adoption, marketing, and much more -- and have been much-covered by everyone from Darwin to Dawkins to Girard to many others. Yet the topic of antimemetics -- self-censoring (vs. self-propagating) ideas -- whether something fringe, forgotten, or forbidden -- haven't been studied as much, especially in the context of modern networks. 

So in this special book-launch episode, we cover the important concept of antimemetics (and memetics) -- focusing on: 

with @rhhackett @milesjennings @BenNapier & Michael Reed

Today we're talking about the passage of the GENIUS Act — that's the "Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act" — which provides clear rules of the road for stablecoins in the U.S. We cover the law's implications, the recent high-stakes vote in the House of Representatives, and the bipartisan efforts to pass this groundbreaking bill.

We also touch on the CLARITY Act — a major new “market structure” bill that would establish a clear regulatory framework for digital asset markets — which the House also passed with bipartisan support and which is...

with @rhhackett @SamBroner @skominers @liz_harkavy @CarraWu @jay_drainjr @mg_486662

Today's episode is a special one. It's a round table on some of the most compelling ideas at the intersection of AI and crypto, sourced from members of the a16z crypto team. You're going to hear from builders, researchers, and deal makers who are all wrestling with the big question: How will these two powerful technologies collide, and what happens when they do?

First, Investment Partner Sam Broner makes the case for giving AI agents universal identities. Then Research Partner Scott Kominers presents how...

with @rhhackett @smc90 @stephbzinn @tim_org

In a now-annual tradition, the a16z crypto editorial team discuss themes (and picks) from a16z crypto's latest reading list, as well as books we keep re-reading, childhood favorites, classics, adaptations on adaptations -- in book and movie form! -- and much more.

What genres are we reading now, how, and why? How is technology -- from AI and ChatGPT to the internet and audio -- changing reading? And why are certain themes in the zeitgeist right now? Is all non-fiction just fiction now, and should we lean...

with @DarenMatsuoka @rhhackett

Today we've got a midyear market update and news episode for you. 

At the end of last year, our guest — and resident data weatherman — Daren Matsuoka put out a post on "5 metrics to watch in 2025." Most of the metrics that Daren picked measure how crypto's adoption: from mobile wallet usage and onchain transaction fees to volume across stablecoins, decentralized exchanges (or DEXs), and exchange traded-products. Now that we're about midway through 2025, it's a great time for an update. 

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(2:27) Chart 1: Monthly Mobile Wallet Users

(6:1...

with @MinarikLaw @EMinSF @rhhackett

Imagine waking up one day to find your bank account frozen. No warning. No explanation. No recourse.

This is not a thought experiment. It’s a real situation. And it’s happened not just to crypto companies and their founders, but to ordinary people who are just trying to live their lives. That includes our guest today, who learned firsthand what it means to be “debanked.”

In this episode, we talk about the unseen algorithms that monitor people’s accounts, the ramifications of the Bank Secrecy Act, and how crypto and...

with @aeyakovenko @alive_eth

Today’s episode features Solana cofounder Anatoly Yakovenko in conversation with a16z General Partner Ali Yahya, recorded live at our CSX Crypto Startup Accelerator program earlier this year.

Anatoly shares the origin story of Solana — from a late-night eureka moment to thousands of investor meetings and several near-death startup experiences. He talks about what it took to get the network off the ground, how his engineering background at Qualcomm shaped its design, and why a need for speed gave Solana its edge.

They also get into developer culture, engi...

In this special episode from TED Tech, hear from GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on how AI is breaking the barrier to entry for coding. Who could a coder look like if you could code just by talking out loud? Learn how, thanks to AI, creating software is becoming as simple (and joyful) as building LEGO. In a live demo, he introduces Copilot Workspace: an AI assistant that helps you create code when you speak to it, in any language.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(0:28) Personal Journey into Coding

(2:31) The Evolution of Programming Languages

with @eddylazzarin @adrian_ludwig @remco @smc90

Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s episode of web3 with a16z podcast, I’m Sonal, and today we’re talking about a hot topic which is also very evergreen because we’re entering a world where AI – including AI agents, bots, deep fakes, and so on -- are changing the internet, very drastically. And so we will need proof of who’s human, or not, online – aka “proof of human” (as Tools for Humanity and World app call it). 

The theme is actually represented on the latest cover of Time magaz...