Renowned VC Firm Andreessen Horowitz Invests $15 Million In MakerDAO’s Stablecoin

Renowned venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has invested $15 million in MakerDAO’s stablecoin, the company recently revealed in a press statement. The VC firm, which is considered one of the most elite in the world, has become increasingly involved in the crypto industry in the past year having set up a $300 million blockchain fund four months ago. With its latest investment, Andreessen Horowitz reiterated its belief that cryptos will define the future of the financial services industry stating that it believes that stablecoins will be the de facto currency on the internet.

The Search For Stability

Stablecoins are becoming integrated into crypto projects at a very high rate, from exchanges to crypto lending platforms to prediction markets. With every new integration, stablecoins are bracing themselves to take over as the de facto currency of the internet, the firm stated in a press statement.

Andreessen Horowitz invested $15 million through a16z crypto, a crypto fund launched in June that’s now worth $300 million. The fund has made investments in a number of crypto and blockchain startups in its four months of existence including decentralized data platform, Oasis Labs, and blockchain-based cloud computing platform, Dfinity.

The decision to invest in a stablecoin comes informed by a16z’s model which focuses on non-speculative assets. The firm describes its crypto fund as “all-weather” investing even when the crypto market is on a bearish momentum.

MakerDAO’s stablecoin, the Dai is an asset-backed stablecoin, soft-pegged to the U.S dollar and backed by Ether held on the Ethereum blockchain. The crypto uses smart contracts to give any user with an internet connection and ETH for collateral the ability to create new tokens. The Dai ecosystem has a network of incentivized market makers who liquidate loans if they risk becoming undercollaterized, removing excess Dai from circulation and ensuring that all the Dai in circulation is backed by collateral.

In the press statement which was compiled by Katie Haun -Andreessen Horowitz’s newest general partner- the firm explained the critical importance of stablecoins, with Haun stating that stablecoins will bring in the institutions that have stayed away from the volatile industry. Haun, who joined the VC firm after spending a decade at the U.S. Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor, further heaped praise on the team behind the Maker Foundation, describing them as the “most impressive technologists she has met in the crypto industry.”

a16z is the latest in a number of companies that have been making investments in the stablecoin industry. A week ago, Chinese crypto-focused investment firm Grandshores Technology Group announced that it would invest $12.7 million in a Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin. The firm, which has a $1.5 billion war chest partly backed by the Hangzhou government, further revealed that it’s working with a mid-tier Japanese bank on the project. The stablecoin will be launched by the end of the year and will target crypto traders as well as exchanges. The firm also revealed that it intends to expand its stablecoin portfolio to other anchor currencies following the success of its initial venture with the Hong Kong dollar and the Australian dollar being the immediate targets.