Christian

What happens when interfaces disappear? Agents don’t just abstract how things get done — they abstract who does them. I started thinking deeply about this while building Sanctum AI and now at @a16zcrypto, I’m seeing founders start to wrestle with it too — especially as agents become more prevalent in crypto systems. 👉 Agency by Design: Preserving User Control in a Post-Interface World → a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

The best technology doesn't always win in the enterprise. The reason isn't technical. It’s organizational. For years, we've had tech that could improve financial rails 10×+. Most of it never got adopted. Enterprises buy the least disruptive path to progress.  Failure inside large institutions is asymmetric. Missed upside is invisible. Visible mistakes aren't. Before your product reaches a buyer, it's often filtered through consultants whose job is to make decisions defensible. Your technical champion isn't your customer. Legal, compliance, risk, and finance have quiet veto power. Winning a pilot ≠ winning adoption. Everybody's hedging. The goal is to become the hedge they scale. A few lessons for crypto founders selling into enterprises, with @lordvolth  → a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Who’s heading to ETHDenver next week? I’ll be there with a few others from the @a16zcrypto team. Let me know if you’re planning to come through ... would be great to meet up!

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. ft.com/content/7b604d…

@nlevine19 @a16zcrypto @Visa Welcome aboard!

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.

The LayerZero event today felt historic. Zero is a new L1 blockchain that builds on four fundamental breakthroughs, including a16z crypto's Jolt zkVM. It manages to defy to the scalability and interoperability limitations that have held back blockchain technology since the beginning. The team has also brought together an impressive list of Zero day partners including @citsecurities, @The_DTCC, @ICE_Markets, and many others. The amount of work that the team has done to get to this point is monumental. Congratulations!

Layer Zero, the leading blockchain bridge and interop network, has announced their new L1 — Zero. It combines four technical breakthroughs to create exceptional performance and interoperability. And it uses a16z crypto's zkVM Jolt at its core.

@ethanyish Thanks @ethanyish !

@cc_crowley Gem read!

As we become more opinionated, focused, and business case-driven, @cc_crowley from @a16zcrypto publishes a very timely article that resonates deeply with the way we do BD. Enterprises want blockchain-enabled outcomes; adoption happens when protocols remove operational burdens, enabling partners to deliver real business value. Key points: - Enterprises are outcome-driven, not infrastructure-driven. Banks, fintechs, PSPs, and asset managers care about faster settlement, better liquidity, lower reconciliation risk, and improved efficiency, not necessarily operating blockchain infra. - Implementation paths matter. Enterprises are more inclined to engage when there’s a clear, low-friction way to realize operational or economic upside with concrete ROI. - Protocols shouldn’t “sell the chain.” Pitches framed as “run payments on our chain” often sound like asking corporates to operate a new payments network, which they don’t necessarily want. The winning motion is aligning blockchain capabilities to existing enterprise workflows. - Orchestration beats ownership. Most protocol teams don’t have the services capacity to design and run production systems for enterprises. Successful teams translate enterprise needs into partner-deliverable solutions, relying on integrators, custodians, processors, and compliance providers. - Three dominant enterprise adoption models (note, Avalanche offers all three): (1) Deploying onto someone else’s chain; the lowest lift, but less control and predictability. (2) Having others deploy onto your chain where protocols provide rails; partners handle integration and distribution. (3) Stack-as-a-service via purpose-built networks operated by the protocol, delivered via partners. - Partners are the real GTM engine. Adoption accelerates when protocols focus on enabling integrators, custodians, processors, and consultants (e.g., Accenture, Fireblocks, Anchorage) to deliver blockchain functionality inside tools enterprises already use. - Design partners matter. Effective design partner programs involve deep workflow mapping, production deployments, and feedback loops. This is where our BD team rolls up their sleeves and gets in the weeds with our partners. - Don’t sell the chain. Sell the capability. a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Solana Stories: Investing In People @a16z

Enterprise blockchain adoption doesn’t happen because companies want to run chains. It happens because someone else does the work and makes it easy to use the chain. Don’t sell the chain. Sell the capability. New piece on partner-driven enablement 👇 a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Yesterday, we released our 17 Big Ideas for 2026. Here they are in case you missed it.

Books we’re reading this winter 2025. ⤵️

We're out with our Big Ideas for 2026... @cc_crowley and I write why 2026 could be the year the Internet becomes the Bank.

Our @a16zcrypto team’s big ideas for 2026 are out today! I write about how traditional wealth management services are becoming more accessible to all investors. Check it out, along with the other big ideas, here:

It's time for our annual big ideas. Here are 17 things that various a16z crypto partners (plus a few guest contributors) are excited about for what’s ahead in 2026. On topics ranging from agents and AI; stablecoins, tokenization, and finance; privacy and security; to prediction markets, SNARKs, and other applications… to how we’ll build. Find the full post here: a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Full list here:  a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

We just published @a16zcrypto’s Big Ideas for 2026. @lordvolth and I dug into a big shift we’re seeing: as agents move on chain, the internet itself starts to look a lot like the bank.