Chris Dixon Keeps the Crypto Faith
Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto king has made a fortune for the firm with his multibillion dollar gamble on the category, but now crypto is awash in falling prices, hovering regulators and negative headlines. Dixon isn't flinching—for now—as he continues to plow money into crypto startups.
This summer, venture capitalist Chris Dixon settled down for a dinner conversation about politics, startup investing and the economy with business and entertainment executive Michael Ovitz at Ovitz’s 28,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion. At one point, the conversation shifted to a topic Dixon knows intimately: cryptocurrency.
Dixon—the leader of crypto investing at Andreessen Horowitz—had just helped raise the firm’s latest multibillion-dollar slug of cash dedicated to blockchain startups, a category of companies that was suddenly engulfed in grim news. The price of Ethereum’s coin was about three-quarters off its high last year, financial regulators were swarming around the sector, and entrepreneurs and investors had begun buzzing about a “crypto winter.” Dixon seemed unfazed by the turmoil, said Ovitz, who has been friends with Dixon for about a decade and a longtime adviser to Andreessen Horowitz.
“I will call him consistently, and if there’s some terrible headline, I’ll joke with him, ‘How are you feeling about crypto now?’ But he hasn’t wavered once,” Ovitz told The Information in an interview. “He doesn’t react. He just calmly says, ‘Nope, still long.’”