When Bitcoin traded around $4,000 in 2018, at least most Americans thought cryptocurrency was a fashion, Katie Haun found himself Debate Stage On the opposite side of Mexico City, Nobel Prize-winning economists see digital assets as nearly worthless. When Krugman focused on the barbaric price fluctuations of Bitcoin, Haun turned the conversation to something else – the stable.
“It’s really interesting to hedge this volatility on stablecoins, and it’s very important to hedge this volatility,” she said on the stage, explaining how digital tokens can provide the benefits of blockchain technology without the fluctuations of traditional cryptocurrencies.
Krugman completely refuted the idea.
This is not a turning point in Haun’s career, but it’s other moments that help define it. A former federal prosecutor has spent more than a decade investigating financial crimes, including the establishment of the government’s first cryptocurrency task force in the Silk Road case and a lead investigation of Gox Mt. Hack and corrupt agents, who has an unusual background in the context of the crypto championship. She is not a liberal thinker or tech founder. She comes from law enforcement and she understands the criminal potential and legitimate uses of digital assets.
By 2018, she had become Andreessen Horowitz’s first female partner in history, where she co-led their crypto funding. Founded in 2022 by Haun Ventureswith over $1.5 billion in asset management assets – whose team is now investing from brand new funds that have not yet been officially closed – she is more free to pursue concrete beliefs about the future of currency.
The leap of hanging its own shingles is not without its complexity. Despite her role in the A16Z and its associated industry links, neither has been publicly invested since then Early 2022Shortly after she started the fund, Haun joined Coinbase’s board in 2017, starting it last year, while Marc Andreessen took the seat of colleague Chris Dixon in 2020.
When asked about her relationship with Andreessen Horowitz on Wednesday night at a rigorous event at TechCrunch, she downplayed any potential friction while acknowledging that they were not fully collaborators. “There is no gentleman’s agreement,” she said, responding to the editor’s question of whether there is any understanding to avoid competing with her former employer. “I’m still talking to Andreessen Horowitz in fact. You’re right, we haven’t really finished any deals lately.”
The apparent lack of co-investment may reflect a cruel industry or a challenge associated with competing with former colleagues from one of the most outstanding companies leaving Silicon Valley. Anyway, Haun is now drawing its own course, and at its core is Stablecoins, a cryptocurrency designed to maintain stable value by hanging it in traditional assets like Dollar.
Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, its value can swing wildly, and Stablecoin such as Circle’s USDC or Tether’s USDT is designed to trade for $1, creating a digital representation of traditional currencies that can be moved across a blockchain network.
Indeed, by today’s fast-forward, Houn’s belief in stability seems increasingly prescient. Stablecoins (which almost didn’t exist in 2015) are now a quarter of its value. They have become the 14th largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds worldwide, and have recently surpassed Germany and Norway. Stablecoin has surpassed Visa’s trading volume, the first time this year.
“I think people who saw stablecoins a few years ago think, what are the value props?” Houn said Wednesday night. “You asked me before. You said, ‘Why do I need stablecoins?’ I said, ‘If it works for me, I call it,’ and it works for everyone’s questions. ”
In fact, for most Americans, the existing financial system works well. We have Venmo, bank account, credit card. But Haun, with the help of prosecutors’ understanding of the global financial system, said she had long realized that the U.S. experience was not universal.
She believes that in countries with unstable currency or limited banking infrastructure, Stablecoins offers something unique that can be accessed immediately with stable, dollar-denominated values that can be delivered to pennies around the world. “People in Türkiye do not think tether is cryptocurrency, they think tether is money,” she said on Wednesday.
This technology has developed dramatically since the early debates. Stablecoins used to spend $12 $12. Circle said its USDC Stablecoin is fully supported by USD in JP Morgan Bank account and is reviewed by the Big Four accounting firms.
It is important to note that although Circle and Tether are committed to having enough reserves to support their tokens, unlike traditional banks, there is no insured government protection behind these reserves. Still, the business community has attracted much attention.
Walmart and Amazon are It is reported that stablejust like other giants like Uber, Apple, and Airbnb. The reason is simple economics. Stablecoins provides a way to transfer the value of dollars using cryptocurrency railroads instead of traditional banking infrastructure, potentially saving these retail value billions of dollars in processing costs.
But this shift has worried critics Economic chaos. If a major company could issue its own currency, what would happen to monetary policy and banking regulations?
These concerns are not just about economic damage. Not all Stablecoins are equal, and many lack the support and oversight provided by companies like Circle. While stable stability like USDC is backed by the actual dollar of Treasury bills, others are operating with less transparency or relying on complex algorithmic mechanisms that are proven to be prone to collapse. (Terrausd has encountered the most camera crash so far, eliminating it $60 billion There is value in the nose. )
Recently, the focus of corruption has attracted attention when Donald Trump’s family issued their own stablecoins, a move highlighting potential conflicts of interest in industries where political influence can directly affect market value and regulatory outcomes.
These concerns caught the eye when Congress debated the Genius Act, which would create a federal framework for Stablecoin regulation. bill pass The Senate received bipartisan support earlier last week, with 14 Democrats crossing the party to support it. Now, it waits for the house to vote before it can reach the president’s desk.
But Elizabeth Warren, a ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, made a special statement in her opposition, saying the legislation was “Donald Trump’s Corrupt Super Highway. Her criticism focused on the significant gap in the bill: While it bans members of Congress and senior executive officials from issuing Stablecoin products, it has no explanation for their families.
When asked about Warren’s concerns on Wednesday night, Houn almost rolled his eyes. “I think it’s really ironic that Elizabeth Warren or other Democrats who call this kind of corrupt have not worked to pass crypto legislation,” she said. “If there are rules for the road, there are rules for the road.” [already]there will be a framework on what is security, what is commodity and what consumer protection is about. ”
Haun’s venture capital firm Haun has made numerous stable investments, including Bridges (reported to be 10 times forward revenue), but it is no surprise to back the legislation. But she received a noteworthy criticism: The bill prohibits the stability of surrender.
“I’m not sure that load-bearing stabilizers are a good idea for American consumers, but I’m not sure that bans are a good idea.” The question boils down to who makes profits from the benefits gained from stable reserves. Currently, the money is handed over to companies such as Circle and Coinbase. But Haun wondered why consumers shouldn’t get that kind of gain, just like they do in a savings account.
“If you have a savings account or checking account and you are getting a yield, you are getting interest,” she explained. “If you just say, ‘No, the bank gets interest, not you,’ and they are borrowing money?”
On another Warren’s concern, Haun is not that nuanced: If the Genius Act is signed into law, Stablecoins could become a tool for money laundering and terrorist financing.
“The criminals are great testers of all technology,” Houn said. “But this technology is highly traceable and more traceable than cash. The biggest crime tool is the dollar bill.” (According to Houn, the Treasury Department has testified that 99.9% of money laundering crimes have been successful in using traditional bank wires instead of cryptocurrencies.)
At the same time, legislation like the Genius Act provides regulatory clarity that can actually make the system safer, thus distinguishing legitimate, supportive stability from more experimental or risky variants, she said.
In fact, Haun sees greater changes as the Stablecoin ecosystem continues to mature. She envisions a future where assets can be “tokenized” from money market funds to real estate to private credit and will reach global markets 24/7.
“It’s just a digital representation of physical assets,” she explained. “Blackstone, Franklin Templeton, they’ve attributed money to money markets. That’s already happening.”
According to Haun, token assets can democratize investment opportunities in a way similar to Netflix’s democratization of entertainment. For example, people with $25 and smartphones don’t have to be rich enough to meet the minimum investment threshold, for example, smartphones can buy partial ownership in a portion of Apple or Amazon.
“Just because something is inevitable, it doesn’t mean it’s coming,” Houn said on Wednesday. But she is confident that the transformation is coming, driven by the same force that makes stablecoins successful: They’re faster, cheaper and easier to obtain than traditional alternatives.
Looking back at the 2018 debate with Krugman, Haun’s insistence seems to have paid off. Now, a major question is not whether the digital dollar will reshape the financial system, but more importantly, whether regulators can keep up with the technology while addressing legitimate concerns about corruption, consumer protection and financial stability.
Hahn doesn’t seem to be worried. Although critics point out that stablecoins make up only 2% of global payments, questioning the fact that their product market is appropriate, Haun believes it is a familiar tech adoption story – it works repeatedly and often takes longer than originally thought.
“We think it’s really early,” she told the crowd.
