Chris Dixon

Programming, philosophy, history, internet, startups, crypto. Managing Partner @a16zcrypto. See disclosures:

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

https://t.co/u1xbTIC8J6

[Robbie Petersen @robbiepetersen_]

Excited to announce that I'm joining @a16zcrypto as an Investment Partner

My thesis on crypto has always been the same: if you believe the arc of technological adoption bends toward efficiency, market forces will inevitably reveal that blockchains are the most efficient technology for global coordination

This is already evident across stablecoins, perps, prediction markets and tokenized assets. The only bottleneck to blockchains eating the rest of global markets – and creating net new markets – is time

The delta between sentiment and fundamentals has never been wider in crypto, and therefore I've never been more bullish

Couldn't be more fired up to work alongside @cdixon, @alive_, @guywuolletjr, @eddylazzarin and the entire @a16zcrypto team, backing the most ambitious founders pulling this future forward!

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

https://t.co/3jYX1ODJ1L

[a16z crypto @a16zcrypto]

https://t.co/5HWCyID7R0

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

The CLARITY Act has now passed out of the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan backing and moves to a full Senate vote - a historic moment for crypto entrepreneurs and American consumers.

Crypto is not a red or blue issue. It is about whether the next generation of financial and internet infrastructure gets built in the United States.

Thank you to @SenatorTimScott and @SenLummis for your leadership on the committee, to @BankingGOP, @Sen_Alsobrooks, and @RubenGallego for their support, and to all of the staff who have worked tirelessly to get to this point.

It’s time to pass CLARITY.

[a16z crypto @a16zcrypto]

BREAKING: The Senate Banking Committee has voted to advance the CLARITY Act. Next stop: the Senate floor.

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

The Senate Banking Committee released the latest draft of the CLARITY Act last night. The draft has significantly improved since January and reflects years of bipartisan negotiations.

It’s time to get this passed.

This bill safeguards consumers, includes important developer protections, and gives crypto entrepreneurs the regulatory clarity they need to build here in the U.S.

We’re thankful for the hard work of the Senate Banking Committee and their staff.

We urge Senators on both sides to move quickly to advance it out of Committee, to the Senate floor, and ultimately be signed into law by the President.

[U.S. Senate Banking Committee GOP @BankingGOP]

Chairman @SenatorTimScott, @SenLummis, and @SenThomTillis released market structure text ahead of this week’s markup.

The Senate’s CLARITY Act delivers clear rules of the road, protects investors, combats illicit finance, and keeps innovation in America.
https://t.co/gWwZnX4lwY

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

https://t.co/FwZLru9liV

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

Ron has been there for so long for so many of us. We all love him and hope for a fast and healthy recovery.

[Ron Conway @RonConway]

I want to share some difficult news. I was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and I want you to hear it directly from me.

Treatment is starting immediately and will include multiple strategies over the course of about a year. While I will be stepping back from some of my usual activities, I will continue to support SV Angel founders, who I love with a passion.

SV Angel remains unchanged. Topher has made all of our investment decisions for the better part of the last decade, and Ronny joined as Managing Partner in 2024. They bring experience from nearly every major technology cycle in Silicon Valley and are now focused on partnering with founders building the future of AI. SV Angel has a deep, experienced team that remains fully focused on supporting exceptional founders.

With a more focused and balanced schedule, I can prioritize treatments while helping SV Angel founders at inflection points like we always do!

I’ve chosen not to share the specific type of cancer since I don't want speculation about my prognosis. I appreciate your understanding and respect for this.

I am optimistic about my prognosis. I am fortunate to have the best/amazing team of UCSF doctors in San Francisco, and as you know, I never back down from a fight.

Thank you for your support, it means a great deal to me.

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

Congress has worked tirelessly to give builders the rules they need.

It’s time for members of the Senate on both sides to hammer out the final details of the Clarity Act.

When rules are defined, both consumers and entrepreneurs win. 

The GENIUS Act unlocked stablecoin innovation.

The Clarity Act can do the same across crypto.

[Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent @SecScottBessent]

Congress has spent the better part of half a decade trying to pass a framework to onshore the future of finance.

It is time for @BankingGOP to hold a markup and send the CLARITY Act to President Trump’s desk.

Senate time is precious, and now is the time to act.

[a16z crypto @a16zcrypto]

Sam Broner says that stablecoins are just the first step.

"If stablecoins win, everybody succeeds. Once I'm paying every day, there's a lot of services that want to move onchain due to that gravity."

"Identity is the most obvious. Then social networks begin to form on top of that. Then so do customer to merchant relationships."

"As you begin to move payments onchain a lot of additional things begin to quickly follow, and those opportunities are potentially even bigger and more creative than just the simple payments, just the simple exchange."

@SamBroner

[Ali Yahya @alive_]

https://t.co/JtNNQEZLNz

[Noah Levine @nlevine19]

https://t.co/G8lf0rcqlV

[Noah Levine @nlevine19]

https://t.co/cmB24rZFOn

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

Honored to be named to the @CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee. Thank you @ChairmanSelig and look forward to working alongside @passalacqua_mj and this impressive group to help the CFTC develop clear rules of the road for crypto founders.

[CFTC @CFTC]

.@CFTC Announces Innovation Advisory Committee Members: https://t.co/Inpqzo0ujd

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

The internet made information global. Crypto is doing the same for money.

I discuss how stablecoins bring the internet's original vision to finance, and this important “WhatsApp moment” in the @FT.

https://t.co/PQpFoYvlp8

[Noah Levine @nlevine19]

Excited to share that I’m joining @a16zcrypto as an Investment Partner, focused crypto x fintech, payments, and onchain finance.

This comes after two incredible years at @Visa helping shape our stablecoin strategy and leading onchain data efforts. Deeply grateful to @cuysheffield for his mentorship and leadership.

Huge thanks to @cdixon , @AliYahya, @guywuolletjr, @eddylazzarin , and the entire a16z crypto team for the opportunity.

If you’re building in the space, I’d love to connect.

[Justin Thaler @SuccinctJT]

1/ LayerZero is launching a new blockchain and on the SNARK-proving front it's powered by Jolt.

Benchmark we’re proud of: ~1.6 billion 64-bit RISC-V cycles proved/sec on 64 GPUs, with plenty of room for more speedups.

https://t.co/bi7cDBB8rn

[a16z crypto @a16zcrypto]

https://t.co/aT37H26LMN

[miles jennings @milesjennings]

People wildly underestimate how damaging bad regulation is to innovation.

The lack of clear rules in crypto didn't just slow progress—it fundamentally distorted what got built, who benefited, and how markets functioned.

Specifically:

1⃣Anti-Transparency—The weaponization of US securities laws meant that transparency became a liability. Builders were told to avoid speaking openly and plainly about their systems, economics, or roadmaps. They were told to avoid marketing altogether.

How can startups succeed when they can’t talk about what they’re building?

The forced opacity in crypto undermined trust, slowed adoption, complicated partnerships, and prevented the ecosystem from maturing as other tech sectors do.

Innovation doesn’t thrive in the dark.

2⃣Adverse Selection—In an enforcement-by-ambiguity regime, trust in the rule of law diminishes. The result is the creation of powerful short term incentives for value extraction.

Careful, good-faith builders moved slowly and deliberately, trying not to cross any lines, but would still get targeted by regulators. Meanwhile, profiteers moved quickly to capture attention, capital, and users, and then would disappear before the regulators knew what happened.

Naturally, products were optimized for greed and product market fit became an afterthought. That's unsustainable for any industry, not just crypto.

When regulations incentivize bad outcomes over good, that’s exactly what happens.

3⃣Structural Contortions—When no one is playing by the same rules, the lowest common denominator becomes the default.

Shortcuts to decentralization, dubious Cayman Island foundation structures, token distributions optimized for legal superstition, and governance systems excluding the people actually building all became the norm.

These contortions eroded all of crypto’s strengths—openness, decentralization, and shared ownership—and made the alignment of incentives impossible.

Innovation doesn’t happen without incentive alignment.

4⃣Inefficient Markets—Capital efficiency and rational pricing don't emerge organically in distorted markets.

Crypto might be the largest experiment ever to demonstrate that without a baseline regulatory framework, markets drift towards vibes over fundamentals. They become less rational, not more.

The disastrous U.S. regulatory approach is what drove cycles of memecoins and nihilism instead of innovation.

Markets need rules.
————
Given the above, what’s striking, is not that crypto hasn’t yet delivered on expectations. What’s striking is that it made it to this point, where it sits on the precipice of overcoming all of these distortions.

The GENIUS Act has already legitimized dollars onchain. Project Crypto at the SEC and CFTC are legitimizing securities, derivatives, and other assets onchain. And the CLARITY Act will legitimize the building of the blockchain networks that underpin all of these and other use cases.

With CLARITY, builders can speak plainly. Economic models can be pursued. Roadmaps can be published. Governance can include builders. And guardrails against profiteers, rugpulling, and self-dealing become the norm.

Innovation can happen without distortion.

CLARITY doesn’t guarantee success. But it does create the world’s first regulatory framework for building open networks rather than companies—It creates a legal architecture that finally matches crypto’s technical architecture.

Once that happens, crypto can finally use its strengths at scale. In that world, crypto's opportunity looks a lot more obvious.

[Ali Yahya @alive_]

Making the uses of money 1,000x cheaper, faster, and more programmable unlocks a massive new design space.

This leap is similar to the one from the postal service to the internet, which unlocked multi-trillion dollar companies like Google and Amazon.

It’s a failure of imagination to think that all that crypto has to offer is “finance, but faster.”

Quantity has a quality all of its own.