In 2018, when Bitcoin was trading around $4,000 and most Americans, at least, thought cryptocurrency was a fad, Katie Haun found herself on a debate stage in Mexico City opposite Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who had dismissed digital assets as near worthless. As Krugman focused on Bitcoin’s wild price swings, Haun steered the conversation toward something else — stablecoins.
“Stablecoins are really interesting and really important to this ecosystem to hedge against that volatility,” she argued on stage, explaining how digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar could offer the benefits of blockchain technology without the ups and downs of traditional cryptocurrencies.
Krugman dismissed the idea entirely.
It wasn’t exactly a turning point in Haun’s career, but it was one moment among others that have helped define it. A former federal prosecutor who spent more than a decade investigating financial crimes, including creating the government’s first cryptocurrency task force and leading investigations into the Mt. Gox hack and corrupt agents in the Silk Road case, Haun had an unusual background for a crypto champion. She wasn’t a libertarian ideologue or a tech founder. Coming instead from law enforcement, she understood the criminal potential and legitimate uses of digital assets.
By 2018, she had already made history as the first female partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she co-led their crypto funds. Founding Haun Ventures in 2022, with more than $1.5 billion in assets under management — its team is now investing from a brand-new set of funds that have yet to officially close — she has been even more free to pursue her specific convictions about the future of money.
The leap to hanging her own shingle hasn’t been without its complexities. Despite her role at a16z and the industry connections that came with it, the two haven’t publicly co-invested in anything since early 2022, shortly after she launched her fund, and Haun, who joined the board of Coinbase in 2017, stepped off it last year, while Marc Andreessen, who took colleague Chris Dixon’s seat in 2020, remains a director.
When asked Wednesday night at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event about her relationship with Andreessen Horowitz, she downplayed any potential friction while acknowledging they aren’t collaborators exactly. “There’s no ‘gentleman’s agreement,’” she said, echoing this editor’s question about whether there’s any understanding to avoid competing with her former employer. “In fact, I still talk to Andreessen Horowitz. You’re right that we haven’t really done any deals together of late.”
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The apparent lack of co-investment could reflect the cutthroat industry or the challenges associated with leaving one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent firms to compete directly with former colleagues. Whatever the case, Haun is now charting her own course, and at the heart of it is stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to traditional assets like the U.S. dollar.
Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can swing wildly in value, stablecoins like Circle’s USDC or Tether’s USDT are meant to trade at exactly $1, creating a digital representation of traditional currency that can move on blockchain networks.
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