TechCrunch Disrupt<\/a>, she looked back at what happened over the past couple of years and confirmed that she\u2019s still very optimistic about the future of crypto.<\/p>\nWhen Katie Haun was a general partner at a16z, bitcoin was trading at $65,000, Sam Bankman-Fried was still at the helm of FTX. And Haun agrees that things those things set the space back considerably. But it\u2019s not a bad time to be a crypto investor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a perception out there that crypto is crickets chirping. We find ourselves very busy, but one of the things we did do is we saw this market correction, and we very purposely waited to make some deployments,\u201d Katie Haun said. \u201cSo I know this is going to sound a little odd, but we feel actually it\u2019s a really good time to be investing in the space during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to her, there are a few misconceptions about Haun Ventures. \u201cI think another misperception is \u2018oh, wow, you raised it during a high market, great timing, peak.\u2019 Actually, that was not the case,\u201d Haun said. \u201cIt was not a walk in the park. Number one, crypto market cap had dropped 40% from its peak.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing is perception of our fund is we\u2019re one huge, enormous $1.5 billion fund, and we\u2019re not. We have two funds. We have an early stage fund, $500 million. We do A, B and C. And then we have an acceleration fund, which backs all kinds of later stage projects in crypto.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to the larger fund, Haun Ventures recently closed two deals without announcing them in two \u201ciconic brands\u201d in crypto that are growing rapidly. Haun didn\u2019t name those companies.<\/p>\n
Without giving any hard numbers, Haun said that her firm hasn\u2019t deployed half of the larger fund. \u201cOf our earlier stage fund, it\u2019s considerably less than that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She has no regret raising $1.5 billion across her two funds. She thinks it\u2019s the right size and she believes Haun Ventures will remain committed to this sort of fund size in the long run.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd by the way, I\u2019m sitting here publicly stating this on the record in a stage setting, even if the market is in a massive crypto bull run, we don\u2019t intend to increase our size. We think we\u2019ve picked our size and our strategy for a reason,\u201d Haun said.<\/p>\n
SEC might need to come back to Earth<\/h2>\n
When talking about the SEC and current regulatory concerns about cryptocurrencies, Katie Haun expressed some strong opinions about some of the decisions that have been made by the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law and the regulations are decided in this country by courts and by Congress. They\u2019re not decided by independent agencies. So just because an agency says something doesn\u2019t really make it the law. And I think a lot of people don\u2019t realize that. And so we\u2019ve seen agencies, certain branches of government \u2014 by the way, across different administrations too \u2014 get very, very involved,\u201d Haun said.<\/p>\n
In particular, she criticized the current leadership. \u201cI think the SEC under [Gary Gensler] has really taken a very expansive view of their jurisdiction in a way that I think, by the way, make no mistake, it\u2019s not just crypto, it\u2019s on AI, it\u2019s on climate,\u201d Haun said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a bit concerning, because that\u2019s not how our system is set up. And I think that\u2019s why you\u2019ve started to see some federal judges starting to say \u2018wait a second, this is a step too far,\u2019\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what\u2019s going on now is regulators need to prove that they\u2019re the tough cop on the beat. And they\u2019re going after whatever they can, even if they might not ultimately prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end of FTX<\/h2>\n
As a former federal prosecutor, Katie Haun also had thoughts about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX in general. She did meet him a couple of times at conferences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on team Coinbase and the audience was by and large a lot of FTX supporters. The only other time \u2014 I think I met him two or three times \u2014 the only other time I shared a stage with him was behind closed doors, so I won\u2019t say too much about it. But I can tell you also, I was talking about government and there were some awkward moments where he was saying, oh, I was not registering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 SEPTEMBER 21: (L-R) TechCrunch General Manager & Editor-In-Chief Connie Loizos and Haun Ventures Founder & CEO Katie Haun speak onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 at Moscone Center on September 21, 2023 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White\/Getty Images for TechCrunch)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
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