Andreessen Horowitz Report: Crypto Not as Chaotic as It Appears

Top venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz looked at four key metrics for three cycles of cryptocurrency showing consistent growth.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz thinks the past growth of social media, developers, prices, and startups among cryptocurrencies could mean a crypto cycle favorable to investors in the future.

The United States-based company released a report on May 15 analyzing cryptocurrencies during three cycles, peaking in 2010, 2013, and 2017. According to the firm, the compound annual growth rates (CAGR) from 2010 to the present shows ”choppy yet consistent growth in all of [these] key metrics.”

“The 2017 cycle spawned dozens of exciting projects in a wide range of areas including payments, finance, games, infrastructure, and web apps,” says the report.

Andreessen Horowitz noted that the innovative ideas pushed in the latest cycle have the potential to create a “fourth crypto cycle”, which, if consistent, could see a comparable increase in social media, developer, and startup activity as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) goes up.

Even though crypto cycles look chaotic, over the long term they’ve generated steady growth of new ideas, code, projects, and startups — the fundamental drivers of software innovation. Technologists and entrepreneurs will continue to push crypto forward in the coming years. We are excited to see what they build.

Not its first crypto rodeo
Cointelegraph reported on May 14 that Andreessen Horowitz released videos from its online "Crypto Startup School," a seven-week education course for industry entrepreneurs that ran until mid-April. The firm was also one of the first venture capital groups to invest in crypto companies, including Libra, MakerDAO (MKR), and Coinbase, among others.