Crypto VC heavyweight a16z unveils principles for crypto regulation

Crypto-focused venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has put out its vision for the future of crypto regulation. It’s the latest in a flurry of such proposals from industry players.

Also known as a16z, Andreessen Horowitz today released its “10 Principles for World leaders Shaping the Future of Web3,” a brief document that aims to ground ongoing international policy debates around crypto.

The principles themselves are not especially bombastic. They emphasize the need “to harmonize standards and regulatory frameworks” among nations and calibrate risk for various web3 activities — sentiments that, on the surface, few would disagree with. But as always with policy, the devil is in the details. 

A16z’s statement of principles resembles similar publications from crypto exchanges Binance, FTX and Coinbase. As the future of crypto seems more and more of a regulatory question, the industry’s largest players have become more vocal about what they think policymakers should do.

These firms have radically stepped up their policy activities since August, part of an industry-wide surge following the fight over crypto tax reporting language in the US Congress’s infrastructure package. Indeed, both authors of a16z’s pillars, Tomicah Tillemann and James Rathmell, joined the firm around the same time. Heavy hitters like former Commodity Futures Trading Commission leader Brian Quintenz and former Department of Justice section chief Jai Ramaswamy subsequently joined a16z as well.