Andreessen Horowitz is removing the word “crypto” from the name of its dedicated digital-assets fund, renaming it a16z Frontier and broadening its investment mandate to include artificial intelligence, autonomous machines and biology. The firm says the change is an expansion rather than a retreat from crypto, and that it will continue backing companies in the sector.
According to Decrypt, the renamed fund will be led by Chris Dixon, who has run a16z’s crypto team since 2018, together with Andreessen Horowitz co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, as well as Eddy Lazzarin and Guy Wuollet. The fund’s most recently disclosed size was $2.2 billion, announced in May.
Why a16z is changing the name
The firm’s argument is that blockchain technology is increasingly becoming part of the infrastructure behind financial and technology products, rather than the main feature presented to customers. As a result, a company may use blockchain without describing itself as a crypto business.
Decrypt’s report pointed to several examples cited in the newsletter: JPMorgan has put deposit tokens on Ethereum, Mastercard has developed agent payments on Base with Coinbase wallets, and BNY has tested tokenized Treasuries with Citadel. These products use blockchain-based systems, but their marketing and business descriptions do not necessarily center on crypto.
Dixon’s view is that businesses should be assessed by the products and services they deliver, not solely by the underlying technology. In that framework, “crypto” is no longer a sufficient label for every company using blockchains, just as a consumer would not typically describe Stripe as a TCP/IP company.
The new mandate will also cover artificial intelligence, autonomous machines and biology. That means investments in crypto-related companies will sit alongside opportunities in other technology areas at the same fund, rather than being handled under a crypto-only label.
Crypto remains part of the strategy
Despite the rebranding, a16z says it will continue to invest in crypto. Dixon has also identified a specific role for blockchain technology within the broader strategy: enabling artificial-intelligence agents to make payments to one another.
The firm has presented Oculus, Skydio and Zipline as examples of the type of long-term investment it seeks. Those companies represented bets that appeared unconventional before their potential became more widely recognized. Dixon previously said, in 2022, that he measured the health of the crypto sector by the activity of developers and entrepreneurs rather than by asset prices, at a time when the market had fallen by two-thirds from its peak.
The name change nevertheless comes at a difficult moment for the crypto investment market. Bitcoin is down for the year in the source report, exchange-traded funds have recorded outflows through October, and crypto-focused capital is competing with strong investor interest in artificial intelligence. A fund that previously presented itself as focused on crypto will now have to compete for attention and capital with investments in autonomous machines and biology.
That makes the announcement more than a cosmetic rebrand. It changes the range of sectors that the fund can pursue and places crypto investments within a wider technology thesis. At the same time, a16z’s stated intention to keep investing in the sector indicates that removing “crypto” from the name is not being presented as an exit.
Market picture
Moneyiar market data at 08:14 and 08:13 on October 24, 2026, showed the following:
- FUNToken (FUN) was trading at $0.008745839, up 0.28% over 24 hours and down 0.84% over seven days.
- Ontology (ONT) was trading at $0.0508479803, down 3.53% over 24 hours and down 3.23% over seven days.
The wider market snapshot included in the source report showed Bitcoin at $81,800, Ethereum at $2,400 and Solana at $104, with the three described as broadly unchanged at the time. The report also said Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $635 million in net outflows on Thursday, while Ether ETFs registered $110 million in net outflows.
Beyond markets, the source report noted that Pump had launched EVM limit orders across networks including Ethereum, RH Chain, Base and BSC. It also reported that Decrypt had added onsite token trading through a partnership with Jupiter, allowing readers with Decrypt Money Accounts to swap tokens without leaving the site or connecting an external wallet.
For a16z, the fund expansion places that technology shift at the center of its investment positioning. Crypto remains within the portfolio’s intended scope, but it is now being framed as one component of a broader bet on infrastructure and emerging technologies.
