Haun Ventures is a dedicated crypto and Web3 venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Katie Haun, a former federal prosecutor and one of the first general partners on the crypto team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The firm launched with two funds announced simultaneously in early 2022: a $500 million early-stage fund and a $1 billion acceleration fund, bringing total committed capital to $1.5 billion – one of the largest crypto-native VC raises of that cycle. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Haun Ventures operates as a pure-play Web3 investor with no legacy tech portfolio to balance.
The firm's thesis centers on decentralized protocols, consumer crypto applications, and infrastructure that sits between blockchains and end users. Haun Ventures targets investments at seed through growth stages, with the acceleration fund focusing on later-stage rounds where companies need operational support alongside capital. The $1.5 billion raise attracted significant attention partly because it closed just as broader crypto markets began their 2022 downturn, putting early pressure on portfolio valuations.
Notable investments
- Phantom – the leading Solana wallet, later expanded to Ethereum and Bitcoin
- Farcaster – a decentralized social protocol that gained mainstream traction in the 2023–2024 cycle
- Privy – embedded wallet and auth infrastructure for consumer crypto apps
- Goldfinch Finance – decentralized credit protocol focused on real-world lending in emerging markets
- Chaos Labs – economic security and risk simulation tooling for DeFi protocols
- LayerZero – cross-chain interoperability infrastructure (investment reported alongside other leading VCs)
- Mysten Labs – the team behind the Sui blockchain
Public information on the full portfolio breakdown is limited. Haun Ventures has not published a complete portfolio list, and some investments have been disclosed only through company announcements rather than firm filings.
Team
Katie Haun is the founder and managing partner. Before Haun Ventures she spent nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor at the US Department of Justice, leading early crypto-related cases and co-chairing the DOJ's first cryptocurrency working group. She then joined a16z in 2018, where she co-led the crypto funds before departing to start her own firm. She also served on the board of Coinbase through its 2021 IPO. Other reported partners and senior team members include Jeff Amico (formerly a16z crypto), Sumana Madupu, and Rachael Horwitz (former head of communications at a16z). Harvard professor Scott Kominers, a noted researcher in mechanism design and NFT economics, has been affiliated with the firm in a research capacity.
Recent activity
The 2022–2023 crypto bear market, compounded by the FTX collapse in November 2022, hit the firm's portfolio alongside the broader industry. Several Web3 consumer applications in the portfolio saw user activity decline sharply. Reports in 2023 indicated that Haun Ventures, like most crypto-native funds of that vintage, faced significant paper losses on the $1.5 billion raised at cycle-peak valuations. The firm made internal staff reductions in 2023, consistent with a wider trend of crypto VCs cutting costs during the downturn.
The 2024 market recovery – driven by spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in the US and renewed institutional interest – improved conditions for the portfolio. Phantom in particular benefited from surging Solana activity in 2024. Haun Ventures has not publicly announced a third fund as of early 2026; the firm appears to be deploying the remaining capital from the original two funds rather than returning to market for fresh LP commitments immediately.
Haun Ventures occupies a distinct position in the crypto VC landscape: deeply connected to regulatory and legal networks through Katie Haun's DOJ background, and operationally experienced through her a16z tenure. Whether the firm can return its $1.5 billion in a market that punished 2021–2022 valuations hard will be the defining test of this fund cycle. Early bets on Phantom and Farcaster have aged well; the broader portfolio performance remains to be seen as the industry moves toward liquidity events in the 2025–2027 window. For current portfolio details, see the firm's official website and its Crunchbase profile.
