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Andreessen Horowitz Gets FTC OK for Unspecified Coinbase Transaction
It is unclear at press time whether the approval is for a16z’s previously disclosed purchase of shares in Coinbase or for a new purchase.
Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) late-stage venture fund has received a green light from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for a transaction involving Coinbase. It is unclear at press time whether the approval is for the fund’s previously disclosed purchase of shares in the cryptocurrency exchange or for a new purchase.
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- The VC giant’s $2 billion fund, Andreessen Horowitz LSV Fund I, L.P, received antitrust clearance from the FTC in a filing dated Sept. 22 involving “Coinbase Global, Inc.”
- Given that Coinbase’s $8 billion valuation would represent nearly half of a16z’s $16.6 billionhttps://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=635056 assets under management, it’s extremely unlikely the clearance is for an outright purchase.
- a16z most recently participated in Coinbase’s $300 million Series E in October 2018. Its first investment in the crypto exchange came in 2013’s Series B, a round it led.
- Since a16z already has a stake in Coinbase, it’s likely the FTC clearance is for the firm’s previously disclosed purchases of Coinbase shares, or for a purchase of additional shares. The exchange is reportedly considering going public.
- A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed that “Coinbase Global” is the firm’s parent entity but would not comment further. A spokesperson from a16z declined to comment on the record.
- Coinbase has had close ties with a16z since at least 2013. The exchange added a16z chief Marc Andreessen as a board observer in August.
Read more: Andreessen Horowitz Doubles Down on Crypto Investments With New $515M Fund
Danny Nelson
Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.
Zack Seward
Zack Seward is CoinDesk’s contributing editor-at-large. Up until July 2022, he served as CoinDesk’s deputy editor-in-chief. Prior to joining CoinDesk in November 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Technical.ly, a news site focused on local tech communities on the U.S. East Coast. Before that, Seward worked as a reporter covering business and technology for a pair of NPR member stations, WHYY in Philadelphia and WXXI in Rochester, New York. Seward originally hails from San Francisco and went to college at the University of Chicago. He worked at the PBS NewsHour in Washington, D.C., before attending Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.
