Chris Dixon
@cdixon
Programming, philosophy, history, internet, startups, crypto. Managing Partner @a16zcrypto. See disclosures: https://t.co/Ov6kKJAUpq
Chris Dixon, Managing Partner at a16z crypto, offers unparalleled insights into the evolving crypto landscape, from institutional adoption to critical policy. With nearly a million followers, his influential voice shapes discussions around technology, finance, and the future of the internet.
We’re excited to share our 2025 State of Crypto report. This year’s story: the maturation of the crypto industry — with growing institutional adoption, the rise of stablecoins, better infrastructure, new consumer experiences, and long-awaited regulatory clarity. Read the full report → https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/state-of-crypto-report-2025/ Here are the biggest trends of 2025…
It’s time to pass bipartisan stablecoin legislation. The GENIUS Act will protect consumers and increase transparency--a significant improvement on the status quo. We support any legislation that achieves that progress while safeguarding the core benefits of blockchain technology — empowering peer-to-peer digital economies to operate without intermediaries. The bill isn't perfect and will require refinements to achieve these goals, but it is essential that the Senate complete its bipartisan work on the GENIUS Act. Moving quickly on this and a market structure bill would provide long-overdue clarity for consumers and the industry so that we entrench dollar dominance and the U.S. remains the leader in blockchain technology. 🇺🇸
Stablecoins: Payments Without Intermediaries The internet made information free and global. So why is it still so hard — and expensive — to move money? The early internet promised a future where anyone could publish, build, or transact without permission. Protocols like email and the web were open and neutral — and they sparked an explosion of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. But somewhere along the way, we veered off course. Today, the global financial system resembles a patchwork of corporate networks: centralized, closed, and extractive. Behind every transaction is a Rube Goldberg-machine of intermediaries — points of sale, payment processors, acquiring banks, issuing banks, local banks, correspondent banks, foreign exchanges, card networks, and others — each taking a cut, adding latency, and imposing rules. These networks levy unnecessary taxes on commerce and curb innovation. They turn what should be neutral plumbing into high-friction bottlenecks. Stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar, are a way out, a reset — a way to bring the internet’s original vision to money. The Disruptive Opportunity of Stablecoins The current payments stack wasn’t built for the internet — it was built for a world rife with fee-taking middlemen (who had been necessary to manage local partnerships, fraud, and operations). Even today, international remittances can cost up to 10% in fees. (A $200 remittance cost 6.62% on average in September 2024.) These aren’t just friction points — they’re effectively regressive taxes on some of the world’s poorest workers. The system we’ve inherited is slow, opaque, and exclusionary, and it leaves billions of people underserved or entirely cut off from the global financial system. For many businesses, the inefficiencies of traditional payments are also massive. Stablecoins could dramatically improve the situation. B2B payments from Mexico to Vietnam take 3-to-7 days to clear and can cost anywhere from $14-to-$150 per $1000 transacted, passing through as many as five intermediaries along the way, each of whom takes a cut. Stablecoins could bypass legacy systems, like the international SWIFT network and associated clearing and settlement processes, and make such transactions nearly free and instant. This isn’t theoretical — it’s already happening. Right now, companies like SpaceX are using stablecoins to manage their corporate treasuries (including by repatriating funds from countries with volatile local currencies, like Argentina and Nigeria). Other companies, like ScaleAI, are using stablecoins to make faster, cheaper payouts to global workforces. Meanwhile, on the B2C side, Stripe is the first widely used service to offer crypto payments and it is already offering 1.5% on checkout — half what incumbents charge. This could drastically improve certain businesses’ profit margins: As a16z crypto’s @SamBroner has shown, for a very low margin business like a grocery store, a 1.5% improvement could potentially double net income. (And in a competitive, blockchain-based market, I would expect transaction fees to go much lower.) Unlike the old financial stack, which evolved in silos, stablecoins are global by default. They live on blockchains: open, programmable networks that anyone can build on. There’s no need to negotiate with dozens of banks across borders. You just plug into the network. People are already recognizing the advantages. In 2024, stablecoins moved $15.6 trillion in value, effectively matching Visa’s volume. While that figure mostly represents financial flows (versus retail payments), its magnitude still suggests we’re on the verge of a financial infrastructure shift, one that doesn’t rely on duct-taping 20th-century systems together. Instead, we can build something new, something truly internet-native — or what Stripe calls “room-temperature superconductors for financial services,” where rather than lossless energy transmission, you get lossless value transmission. The WhatsApp Moment for Money Stablecoins are our first real shot at doing for money what email did for communication: make it open, instant, and borderless. Consider the evolution of text messaging. Before apps like WhatsApp, sending a text across borders meant paying 30 cents per message. Even then, you were lucky if it actually got delivered. Then came internet-native messaging: instant, global, free. Payments are now where messaging was in 2008: Fragmented by borders. Burdened by middlemen. Gatekept by design. Stablecoins offer a clean-slate alternative. Instead of stitching together clunky, costly, and outdated systems, stablecoins flow seamlessly on top of global blockchains. These systems are programmable, composable, and designed to scale across borders. Already, stablecoins are slashing the cost of remittances: Sending $200 from the U.S. to Columbia using traditional methods will cost you $12.13; with stablecoins, it costs $0.01. (Fees to convert from stablecoins to local currencies can range from as high as 5% to as low as 0%, and prices continue to fall due to competition.) Just as WhatsApp disrupted costly international phone calls, blockchain payments and stablecoins are transforming global money transfers. Regulation: From Bottleneck to Breakthrough It’s tempting to frame regulation as an obstacle — but smart legislation is actually the unlock. Clear rules of the road for stablecoins and crypto market structure could finally allow these technologies to move out of the sandbox and toward widespread adoption. For years, decentralized finance (DeFi) was trapped in a kind of self-contained, circular, “crypto-for-crypto” economy. Not because the tools weren’t useful, but because regulators made it incredibly difficult to bridge into traditional financial systems. That’s changing. Policymakers are now actively shaping rules to recognize and regulate stablecoins in ways that maintain U.S. competitiveness, protect consumers, and allow innovation to flourish. Thoughtful regulation — like frameworks that differentiate network tokens from security tokens — can protect against bad actors while giving good actors the clarity they need to build. In fact, a forthcoming bill clarifying this regulation could pave the way for even broader adoption and integration into the global financial system. (Congress is hashing out the details as I write.) Building Public Goods for Everyone’s Benefit Traditional finance is built on private, closed networks. But the internet showed us the power of open protocols — like TCP/IP and email — to drive global coordination and innovation. Blockchains are the internet’s native financial layer. They combine the composability of public protocols with the economic strength of private enterprise. They are credibly neutral, auditable, and programmable. Add stablecoins on top and you get something we’ve never really had before: open money infrastructure. Think of it like a public highway system. Private companies can still build the vehicles, the businesses, the roadside attractions. But the roads themselves are neutral and open for everyone. Blockchain networks and stablecoins are doing more than just cutting fees. They’re enabling new categories of software: - Programmatic payments between machines: Imagine AI agent-powered marketplaces automatically brokering deals for computer resources and other services. - Micropayments for media, music, and AI contributions: Imagine setting a budget with some simple rules and leaving it to “smart” wallets to disburse the payments. - Transparent payouts with full audit trails: Imagine using these systems to track spending in government. - Global commerce without a mess of intermediaries: Imagine settling international transactions instantly at negligible cost — in fact, you don’t have to imagine it as it’s already happening. The moment for blockchain networks and stablecoins is now: Technology, market demand, and political will are lining up and making these applications a reality. A stablecoin bill could be on the floor this year, and regulatory agencies are weighing frameworks that finally align risk with the right oversight. In the same way that early internet startups were able to thrive once it was clear they wouldn’t be shut down by telcos or copyright lawyers, crypto is ready to cross the chasm from financial experiment to infrastructure backbone, with stablecoins leading the way. We don’t have to patch the old system. We can make a better one.
Today we are excited to announce that we are promoting Guy Wuollet (@guywuolletjr) to General Partner. We first met Guy in 2018 while he was studying computer science at Stanford, where he also rowed varsity crew. He initially joined the firm as an intern working on the enterprise go-to-market team, but it soon became clear he was most passionate about crypto. We kept running into Guy: first when he joined our Crypto Startup Accelerator to build a decentralized ISP, then while doing research at Protocol Labs, and finally as a teaching assistant for our research partner @danboneh. After joining us full-time in 2020, Guy began investing in infrastructure, DeFi, and DePIN. He has been a steady and creative force, making significant contributions to more than 20 investments, including Solana, LayerZero, Gensyn, EigenLayer, Daylight, and Morpho. Based on insights from prior investments like Orchid, Nym, and Helium, Guy defined our thesis on what would become known as DePIN. He wrote one of the defining blogs on why DePIN matters and helped us invest in Gensyn. Next he wrote about decentralized energy and led our investment in Daylight. Guy also invested in decentralized transportation, robotics, and AI projects as he helped run our accelerator. DeFi has always been central to Guy’s thesis, but his early investment in Morpho was driven above all by conviction in the founders. He recognized in @PaulFrambot and his team a rare combination of technical depth and clarity of vision. Since then, Morpho has grown to billions in total value locked and become one of the leading protocols in DeFi. Their V2 launch marked a major leap forward in efficiency and scale for on-chain lending. Through his work with founders, Guy has shown a rare mix of deep technical expertise and thoughtful pragmatism. Founders often tell me how impressed they are that Guy systematically reads, understands, and provides useful feedback on protocol design and other hard technical topics. His writing and advice on token and protocol design have helped influence many projects in our portfolio. Beyond his investing skills, Guy has been a calm and positive presence, with a wry sense of humor, both inside the firm and for founders. As the crypto team grew from a small group to more than 80 people, he helped recruit and mentor many of the talented investors, researchers, and operators who make the team what it is today. Guy is an invaluable member of the team, and it has been great to see him grow and develop over the last five years. Guy joins me, @alive_eth, and @AriannaSimpson as @a16zcrypto’s fourth General Partner.
Today we are announcing that a16z is co-leading the Series D in @Kalshi, a regulated exchange for trading on prediction markets. Prediction markets are a modern implementation of a classic economic idea, one most clearly articulated by Friedrich Hayek. Hayek and the knowledge problem Hayek argued that no central planner could ever access the dispersed knowledge held by millions of people across an economy, a fundamental challenge that has come to be known as the “knowledge problem.” Much of this knowledge is tacit and unspoken, embedded in people’s experiences, circumstances, and preferences. Hayek wasn’t just pointing out the limits of central planning. He was offering a solution. In his 1945 essay The Use of Knowledge in Society, Hayek argued that the solution lies in looking outward, not inward: “We need decentralization,” as he put it. Markets, in Hayek’s view, are not just allocation mechanisms but information systems. Prices act as signals, compressing vast amounts of local knowledge into actionable information. Moreover, prices create incentives: they encourage people to make decisions and act in ways that drive information back into the system. This creates an iterative feedback loop, an engine that drives better performance. Today we might say that the answer to the knowledge problem is not to give central planners more sophisticated computers. The answer is that markets themselves are the computers. Prediction markets make this idea concrete, applying it to questions about the future and turning collective knowledge into prices that reflect probabilities. Why we’re investing in Kalshi This is why we’re excited about prediction markets, and why we’re investing in Kalshi. Kalshi is bringing prediction markets into the mainstream with a compliant, scalable platform for event contracts covering everything from elections and economics to sports and culture. It has already seen billions in trading volume and continues to grow quickly. Kalshi also plans deep crypto integrations, work we’re excited to collaborate on, and today announced they’re expanding globally to 140 countries. We’re not the only ones excited about the potential of prediction markets. For businesses and investors, event contracts can hedge risk, such as exposure to economic or policy changes. For policymakers and analysts, market prices offer real-time forecasts that can outperform polls and expert predictions. And for society at large, prediction markets create an open, transparent, and incentive-driven way to aggregate beliefs about the future. This is the right moment for prediction markets. As trust in established institutions reaches historic lows — at least according to the polls — we need new systems that can earn trust in different ways. We believe the answer lies in open, decentralized systems. DeFi provides an alternative to traditional finance, stablecoins to conventional payment providers, and prediction markets to expert forecasts. Where people once trusted banks or pundits, they can now trust protocols and markets. Hayek’s insight was that knowledge is too widely distributed for any one authority to possess. Instead, we need systems that harness the intelligence of the many. Kalshi puts this idea into action, transforming dispersed information into concrete, market-based forecasts. We’re excited to support their work as they bring prediction markets into the mainstream.
Lawmakers worked through the night and made significant progress on getting GENIUS done in a bipartisan way. We’re optimistic that they will work quickly to get to the finish line. Maintaining the status quo only hurts the American public. It leaves a growing sector of our digital economy in a regulatory gray area—depriving consumers of the protections they deserve, enabling bad actors, and holding back responsible innovation. We urge the Senate to pass the GENIUS Act quickly and focus on finalizing work on a long-term market structure bill. Clear rules will protect consumers, support responsible innovation, and ensure the U.S. remains the global leader in blockchain technology.
Yesterday was big. Market structure legislation got passed out of both the House Ag and Financial Services committees with bipartisan support. This bill does 3 things: 1- protects consumers 2- gives long-term incentives for both builders & investors 3- makes sure crypto stays in the U.S. If we want a better internet we need blockchain networks being built here in America. This bill enables that. Yesterday was a solid step in the right direction, but we now need this bill to come to the House floor and then move to the Senate for approval. Let’s get this done so we can ensure the U.S. remains the crypto leader for decades to come.
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.
Today, a bipartisan group of leaders in the House took an important step in introducing crypto market structure legislation: the CLARITY Act. This follows the recent progress on sound stablecoin legislation and is crucial for ensuring US leadership in blockchain technologies. The CLARITY Act shows a meaningful effort to strike the right balance between laying out appropriate guardrails for the industry while also supporting responsible entrepreneurship and innovation. It signals strong momentum toward smart regulation. We look forward to working with policymakers to ensure strong consumer protections that build public trust while giving entrepreneurs the clarity — and level playing field — they need to keep innovating. It’s time. Congress should move quickly and pass market structure legislation. The future of crypto in America depends on it. 🇺🇸
A huge thank you to @ariannasimpson for all that she’s done for @a16zcrypto. Arianna was an early crypto believer, starting a crypto fund before most people thought it was real. She then joined our team and made many great investments over the last 6 years. She will no doubt build a very successful fund and we look forward to investing alongside her.