- Andreessen Horowitz launched $2.2 billion crypto fund and hired former SEC Finance Director Bill Hinman.
- The firm is notable for its early investments in highly successful companies such as Facebook.
- Hinman is popular for stating that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities.
Prominent crypto valley investment firm Andreessen Horowitz announced the launching of Crypto Fund III, which will enable it to continue investing in promising crypto startups. The fund is worth a whopping $2.2 billion, and will represent “the beginning of an exciting new chapter”.
The announcement read,
“We believe that the next wave of computing innovation will be driven by crypto. We are radically optimistic about crypto’s potential to restore trust and enable new kinds of governance where communities collectively make important decisions about how networks evolve, what behaviors are permitted, and how economic benefits are distributed.”
Alternatively known through the abbreviation “a16z”, Andreessen Horowitz has also expanded its crypto team. In fact, they have hired Bill Hinman, former head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as advisory partner. Hinman is renowned in the crypto space as the person who said that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities. Interestingly, Ripple has included his well-known speech as part of their defense against the SEC for the ongoing lawsuit.
In an earlier interview with CNBC, Hinman said that a cryptocurrency may be a security if there is a third-party promoter of a token sale.
THIS IS DEVASTATING for the SEC! Bill Hinman, who was the SEC Finance Director when they filed the lawsuit against #Ripple, contradicts himself. By his explanation #Ethereum also should be a security, as explained by the Ethereum founder! RETWEET! pic.twitter.com/AZ9SzeUNIH
— CryptoBull (@CryptoBull2020) June 25, 2021
During the interview, Hinman defined a crypto security. The video also showed an evidence of Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin literally making a sale proposition to find investors.
However, “when we look at Bitcoin or Ether and the highly decentralized nature of the networks, we don’t see a third-party promoter,” Hinman said.
Ripple has been trying to use the above interview and statements against the SEC for the ongoing lawsuit. Meanwhile, the SEC is appealing to remove the interview as an evidence that Ripple can use against it.
