Why One Enterprise Investor Is Newly Exuberant on Crypto

Silicon Valley’s holiday party season is in full swing. But instead of having endless conversations about artificial intelligence, I’ve been bombarded by venture capitalists with renewed excitement for cryptocurrency startups. To sum up the mood: One startup founder made a toast when Bitcoin crossed $100,000 on Wednesday. 

Investor Tomasz Tunguz, who founded Theory Ventures in 2022 after a career at Redpoint Ventures backing enterprise startups like Looker (sold to Google). Tunguz told me a year ago that he was starting to spend the majority of his time looking at crypto companies as AI valuations went bonkers. His seven-person firm has since made a handful of crypto-focused investments, including leading a Series A in Allium, a blockchain platform for enterprises, over the summer. 

When we caught up this week, he was even more exuberant.