Soona Amhaz’s Volt Debuts $50M Crypto Fund Backed by Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon

Volt Capital, a crypto venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments, has raised $50 million for its second fund from a list of industry heavyweights.

The fund will continue Volt’s thesis of backing infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) projects, Volt founder Soona Amhaz told CoinDesk in an interview.

Volt Capital was one of the original contributors to crypto accelerator program DeFi Alliance; it launched a $10 million investment fund in April 2021. Backers for the new fund include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) General Partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, angel investor Elad Gil, Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Albert Wenger, global investment firm Tiger Global and European hedge fund manager Brevan Howard.

The larger fund gives Volt more room to pursue investments, said Amhaz, though the firm will remain focused on the pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds that are sometimes overlooked by larger funds.

Read more: Volt Capital Unveils $10M Fund Backed by CMT Digital, Balaji Srinivasan

“What we’re investing in thematically are founders who are reimagining systems and the rails that we use to do everyday activities,” said Amhaz, who used payments, online authentication and video games as example industries that crypto can disrupt.

The fund news comes as crypto markets turn cold. A16z has a price-innovation cycle thesis that said high crypto prices bring in interest, while downturns provide a time for developer and startup fruition. Earlier Wednesday, the VC giant announced a $4.5 billion crypto fund, its fourth.

“I think it’s a phenomenal time to be investing,” Amhaz said. “This is the exact right time to be doubling down.”