Author: Yangz, Techub News

As the encryption market turns from warm to cold, and capital floods rush into the AI ​​track, there is a piece of heavy news in the field of encryption venture capital. A16z Crypto, the crypto arm of a16z, is raising its fifth fund with a target size of about $2 billion and plans to complete the fundraising by the end of the first half of 2026, Fortune magazine reported, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.

As the number one player in the crypto VC field, the news that a16z has raised funds against the trend has quickly attracted widespread market attention. Although the volume of US$2 billion is less than half of the peak of US$4.5 billion set in 2022, at a key node where the industry cycle is rotating and the regulatory environment is gradually becoming clearer, this move undoubtedly injects a shot in the arm into the crypto market in the cold winter, and once again confirms its firm bet on the long-term prospects of blockchain technology.

From 300 million to 4.5 billion: a16z’s first four cycle bets

To understand the counter-trend move of the fifth phase of a16z crypto fund, you might as well trace back the evolution of its first four funds. This is not only a history of expansion of capital scale, but also an investment chronicle deeply bound to the crypto market cycle.

Fund 1 (June 2018): Sowing the seeds for a bear market. At that time, Bitcoin had just fallen from a high of US$20,000, the market was in a deep freeze, and mainstream capital had withdrawn. a16z bucked the trend and officially established the first crypto-specific fund with a scale of US$300 million. The fund invested heavily in MakerDAO (now renamed Sky), a veteran DeFi protocol, in its early stages, demonstrating its far-reaching plans for decentralized governance. It was this precise "counter-cyclical" attack that not only brought it generous book returns, but also established a16z's unshakable status in the Web3 field.

Fund II (April 2020): The Eve of Recovery. On the eve of the global financial turmoil and the outbreak of "DeFi Summer", a16z launched a $515 million second phase fund. Uniswap and other giants that will dominate the DeFi track in the future entered its investment portfolio during this period. At this stage, a16z adheres to the layout logic of "DeFi Lego" and bets on those basic protocols that can be combined with each other to jointly build a decentralized financial system: trading (Uniswap), lending (Compound), derivatives (Synthetix), and stable currency (Celo), almost completing the coverage of the entire business line of decentralized banking.

Fund III (June 2021): The Bull Run. As the crypto bull market reaches its climax in 2021, a16z set a new industry fundraising record at the time with a huge amount of US$2.2 billion. During this period, a16z’s investment logic entered the “full track expansion” mode, focusing on high-performance public chains such as Solana and Avalanche, NFT head projects such as Yuga Labs and OpenSea, and DeFi protocols such as dYdX and Lido. At this time, a16z has undoubtedly evolved from a "track bettor" to a "super incubator" of the Web3 ecosystem.

Fourth Fund (May 2022): Peak Watch. Just as Terra collapsed and the market was in mourning, a16z shocked the industry by announcing the completion of a $4.5 billion Big Mac Fund. Of this amount, $1.5 billion was allocated to seed investments and $3 billion was allocated to venture capital. Relying on this sufficient "winter food and grass", a16z deployed core infrastructure such as LayerZero and Optimism during the trough period, and also invested in Farcaster and Lens Protocol, two decentralized social protocols that had high hopes at the time. Chris Dixon's assertion at that time that "we are now entering the golden age of Web3" is still mentioned repeatedly today.

From 300 million to 4.5 billion, from bear market sowing toPeak Watch, a16z crypto Every fund-raising step is at the node of a different cycle, but the same set of logic is always implemented: scale expansion stems from industry expansion, investment themes deepen with technological iterations, and the determination to travel through cycles has never wavered. Now, the fifth fund may return to the market with a size of $2 billion. Different from the past "step-by-step jumps", this time's scale shrinkage and increased focus may herald a16z's new judgment on the next cycle.

Holding on at home under AI siphon

Looking at Silicon Valley at the beginning of 2026, the capital pointer has been wildly tilted towards AI. As Paradigm shows by expanding the investment scope of its new $1.5 billion fund from pure encryption to artificial intelligence, robotics and other fields, funds that once belonged to the Web3 world are being taken away by computing power and large models.

What is even more disappointing is the exit of Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital. The standard-bearer, once known as one of the "greatest investors in the history of encryption," has turned his focus to areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Before leaving, he posted a pessimistic tweet in reply to netizens: "Cryptocurrency is not as interesting as many crypto enthusiasts (including myself) once imagined. I used to believe in the vision of Web3 and believe in dApps. But now I don't believe it." Although this tweet was quickly deleted, the transition from belief to disillusionment has caused the market to re-examine the grand narrative of Web3.

It is at this fork in the road that a16z crypto’s fifth fund shows an intriguing gesture.

The first is the reduction in scale. Compared with the US$4.5 billion in the fourth phase, the target size of US$2 billion has been reduced by more than half. But this may not be a retreat, but an active "downsizing" - giving up flooding the entire track and switching to a higher-frequency and more precise attack mode; secondly, the pace of fundraising has significantly "speeded up." The previous four-phase funds usually required a one-to-two-year fundraising cycle, while the fifth-phase fund is scheduled to close in the first half of 2026. This kind of compression means that under the current rhythm of the encryption industry narrative, half a step slower may miss the entire cycle. Only by getting money faster can we enter the battlefield faster; of course, the most interesting signal of this fund is that all this happened while a16z was investing in AI as a whole.

In fact, a16z itself is a major player in the AI field. In October 2025, a US$10 billion new fund financing plan was launched, of which US$6 billion was specifically invested in artificial intelligence; in January 2026, a US$15 billion fund-raising was completed, spanning infrastructure, application layer and growth funds, and the intersection of AI and encryption was listed as one of the core investment directions. In other words, a16z is not indifferent to the AI ​​craze. On the contrary, it is standing on the top of the wave.

Precisely for this reason, the choice of the fifth phase of a16z crypto fund has more signaling significance: within the same parent group, the AI fund is responsible for chasing the wave, and the crypto fund is responsible for deepening the position. This pattern of "division of labor rather than steering" is in subtle contrast with Paradigm's cross-border integration and Kyle Samani's exit - when peers are adding or subtracting on the track, a16z chooses to let its two legs run separately.

Conclusion

"US$2 billion, half-year fundraising cycle, fully focused on blockchain."

In an era when AI has taken away countless attention, a16z crypto’s fifth fund has given its own answer. This is not stubbornness that ignores the direction of the wind, but a firm choice based on long-termism. While capital is rushing to chase the next grand narrative, someone has to stay and continue to work hard. This $2 billion is not just a fundraising figure, but a reassurance for the market: at least, a16z still chooses to set aside a dedicated team, an independent fund, and a runway that is enough to go through the cycle without being disturbed for the blockchain.