a16z drops "crypto" from its name: the venture arm that raised $9.8 billion for crypto becomes a16z Frontier and widens its bets to AI and robots

A major crypto investor is dropping the word from its name. Andreessen Horowitz said on Thursday that a16z Crypto is now a16z Frontier, and that it will back startups in AI, autonomous machines and other technologies that may take years to mature, CoinDesk reported; Fortune listed AI, robotics and other emerging technologies.

Chris Dixon, who leads the fund, announced the change in a blog post. He wrote that the move is an expansion: the fund will keep investing in crypto and advocating for sensible crypto regulation, per CoinDesk. His case is that Wall Street and fintech firms now regularly launch blockchain-based products, so the line between crypto and everything else is blurring. "The label matters less now," he wrote. Dixon will lead the fund with Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Eddy Lazzarin and Guy Wuollet.

The crypto arm started in 2018 with a $350 million fund, raised $4.5 billion in 2022 and announced a $2.2 billion fifth fund in May 2026, bringing its total across five funds to $9.8 billion, according to Fortune. In May a spokesperson told Fortune that the fifth fund was fully dedicated to crypto founders; Fortune called the rebrand a reversal of that. The firm was an early Coinbase investor and also backed Solana and Uniswap, CoinDesk noted.

It is not alone. Paradigm raised $1.2 billion in July to invest beyond crypto, Framework Ventures raised $400 million in June, and Haun Ventures announced $1 billion in May with a broader focus, CoinDesk reported. What to watch next: how much of the new fund's money still goes to crypto deals.