Leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is adding new roles for
cryptocurrency that suggest the launch of a new fund focused on buying and
selling crypto assets.
The two jobs posted on the Menlo Park-based company's website, which
Recode first reported,
are for a "separately managed fund focusing on crypto assets."
The venture capital shop has invested in well-known companies in the
space, including Ripple and Coinbase, as well as crypto-only funds like
Polychain Capital. It has also invested in initial coin offerings but this
would mark the firm's first move into publicly trading assets like bitcoin.
Andreessen Horowitz is looking for a new manager to handle "all
financial operations relating to a separately managed fund focusing on crypto
assets," according to the job posting. The company is also looking for
legal counsel to handle all regulatory aspects of the new fund, the job posting
said.
While the posts don't spell out what crypto "assets" might
include, the legal job gives hints. This lawyer would focus on SEC compliance,
and would be operating in an area where the "regulatory, legal and
business climate remains largely unsettled."
That area sounds like the cryptocurrency space, where regulators have
been working out the details of compliance and
have cracked
down on initial coin offering, or ICO, fraud this year.
Andreessen Horowitz's fifth, and most recent fund announced in June
raised $1.5 billion, according to a company blog post. That fund is focused on
early-stage, and mid-stage-growth tech companies, the firm said.
Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for
comment.
Bitcoin is recovering from its worst quarter in history after surging
more than 1,300 percent in 2017. Bitcoin hit
its highest level in more than a month Tuesday after the
cryptocurrency fell 48 percent in the first three months of 2018.
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