Behind the $3.2 billion fundraising, a16z and Haun are betting on who can navigate the regulatory cycle

Author: Zen, PANews At the beginning of this month, the crypto market saw two long-awaited large-scale fundraisings in succession. On May 5, Haun Ventures announced the completion of a $1 billion new fund; one day later, a16z crypto announced the launch of its fifth crypto fund, Crypto Fund 5, totaling $2.2 billion. Compared to the financing boom of the past bull market, which relied on high-growth narratives, the timing of these two large fundraisings is intriguing. Today, the US crypto market structure bills and stablecoin regulations are still advancing, and the divergence between the banking industry and crypto platforms regarding stablecoin yield mechanisms has not yet been fully bridged. In such an environment, LPs are still willing to allocate large amounts of capital to a few top managers, indicating that capital has not actually left the market, but is redefining its investment logic. Amidst the shifting investment focus, we can clearly see a trend: projects worthy of long-term bets are gradually shifting from prioritizing explosive growth to focusing on long-term viability under regulatory cycles. From Bull Market Logic to Regulatory Logic Looking back at the 2021 bull market, the primary market was more like a race centered on growth. At that time, the valuation logic for most projects was built on rapid expansion. VCs focused on TVL, user growth, transaction volume, and token price expectations. As long as a project could quickly capture the market and form a narrative, it had a chance to secure massive funding. However, starting in 2022, the market began to undergo fundamental changes. The sudden collapse of FTX not only caused a rapid contraction in industry liquidity, but more importantly, it profoundly changed the attitude of regulators toward the crypto industry. The US SEC, CFTC, and the banking regulatory system began to intervene more deeply in the crypto market, and areas such as stablecoins, trading platforms, and DeFi gradually entered the regulatory scope. While the secondary market languished, risk appetite in the primary market also declined significantly. Although global crypto financing in 2025 has recovered compared to the bear market phase, capital is increasingly concentrated in top-tier projects and mature infrastructure tracks; the era of "letting a hundred flowers bloom" and mass innovation has long since passed. This means that the focus of VCs has changed. In the past, capital was willing to pay for "potential future growth," but now, more and more institutions are beginning to prioritize whether a project can exist long-term within the future regulatory system. Consequently, factors that were previously undervalued—such as compliance capabilities, compatibility with traditional financial systems, and institutionalization—have begun to re-enter the valuation system. This change is particularly evident in the stablecoin sector. Stablecoins Are Becoming Core Assets Again Over the past year, stablecoins have become one of the most active areas for financing in the entire primary market. Compared to most crypto projects that rely on market sentiment, stablecoins have gradually acquired real revenue models and financial infrastructure attributes. Tether's profitability essentially comes from interest income generated by its massive US Treasury reserves; meanwhile, Circle is attempting to transition from a single stablecoin issuer to a more complete payment and on-chain dollar network infrastructure. More crucially, the US regulatory attitude toward stablecoins is also changing. For a long time, stablecoins existed in a gray area lacking a clear regulatory framework. But entering 2025, discussions regarding stablecoin legislation in the US have significantly accelerated, and the formal exploration of integrating them into the financial system has begun. Against this backdrop, stablecoins have begun to present a market positioning completely different from before. They are no longer just trading media for the crypto community; they are increasingly being viewed by institutions as part of the next-generation dollar settlement infrastructure. Traditional payment companies, including Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe, continue to expand their stablecoin-related footprints. This is why stablecoins have once again become one of the areas VCs are most willing to bet on. For the primary market, a track that can simultaneously satisfy real revenue, regulatory certainty, institutional demand, and the "global payment network" imagination is inherently very scarce. Haun: An Investment Logic More Like "Crypto Finance" The shift in investment logic is crystal clear to those VCs who have survived the baptism of the past few years. In the current crypto primary market, a16z and Haun Ventures, having just secured massive funds, happen to represent two different yet gradually converging paths. Compared to traditional Crypto VCs, Haun Ventures' style has always been unique. Founder Katie Haun served as a US federal prosecutor for a long time and participated in investigations into multiple crypto-related cases. In 2018, Haun joined a16z and became one of the early core partners of a16z crypto. In 2022, she