In 2022, when crypto felt like a heavyweight fight in the late rounds, Kathryn “Katie” Haun stepped forward with $1.5B and a thesis that did not blink. $500M for early stage. $1B for acceleration. 2 funds, calibrated for builders at different altitudes. Not a spray of checks. A capital stack designed to compound conviction. Fortune framed it as 1 of the largest debut raises led by a solo female venture capitalist. Markets saw size. Operators saw signal.
Haun Ventures was not assembled out of hype. Kathryn Haun built it after serving as a federal prosecutor focused on cybercrime, then as a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz co-leading crypto strategy. That arc matters. Courtroom scrutiny sharpens risk assessment. Boardrooms sharpen leverage. The portfolio reflects both. Autograph and OpenSea in NFTs. Aptos pushing blockchain performance. Moonwell in DeFi lending. Later, Bridge leaning into stablecoin infrastructure and Zora exploring digital ownership. Infrastructure and application layer. Pipes and product. A full-stack read on where value accrues inside the startup ecosystem.
The architecture of the firm tells you how it thinks. Early stage capital for protocol designers and founders still writing first commits. Acceleration capital for teams with traction and velocity. Equity and tokens. Governance and growth. This is not thematic tourism. It is long-term alignment with networks that evolve in public and companies that scale in private. When cycles swing, Haun Ventures does not flinch. It rebalances.
Now the firm is targeting another $1B across 2 new crypto funds expected to close in 2025. Same split. $500M early. $500M late. In a sector that has endured volatility, that decision reads as disciplined optimism. Stablecoins, analytics, core infrastructure. The connective tissue of the digital asset economy. While headlines chase price action, Haun Ventures studies durability. That posture places the firm at a critical junction inside the startup ecosystem, where regulatory fluency and technical depth are no longer optional.
Look at the pattern. OpenSea helped define NFT marketplaces at scale. Aptos competes on performance and developer experience. Bridge signals conviction in stablecoin rails as programmable money matures. Zora experiments with creator ownership. This is a thesis that spans base layer to user layer, recognizing that value migrates across the stack over time. In an era crowded with commentary, this is measured execution.
For founders building in crypto, Haun Ventures offers more than capital. It offers pattern recognition shaped by prosecution, governance experience from boards like Coinbase and OpenSea, and a willingness to commit across cycles. For operators, the portfolio represents real surface area inside the startup ecosystem: protocol engineering, marketplace dynamics, compliance strategy, and product at the edge of finance and technology.
Explore the Haun Ventures portfolio and the career pages of Autograph, OpenSea, Aptos, Bridge, and Zora. The next generation of crypto infrastructure is being staffed now.
Follow this firm. Study their founders. Track their plays.
