Katie Haun

Katie Haun
Haun at the TechCrunch StrictlyVC event in 2025
Katie Haun
Born	Kathryn Rose Haun
Nationality	American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, lawyer
Title	Founder and CEO, Haun Ventures
Known for	Founding Haun Ventures
Website	[https://www.haun.co/ Official site]

Kathryn Rose Haun is an American venture capitalist, former federal prosecutor, and the founder and chief executive officer of Haun Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm specializing in digital assets and blockchain technology. Before entering the venture capital industry, Haun spent a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of California, where she led some of the federal government's earliest and most prominent investigations into cryptocurrency-related crime, including the prosecution of corrupt federal agents involved in the Silk Road case. In 2018, she became the first female general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where she co-led the firm's inaugural dedicated cryptocurrency fund. She departed in 2022 to launch Haun Ventures, raising $1.5 billion across two funds — one of the largest debut fundraises by a solo female founder in the history of venture capital. Haun also served as the first independent director on the board of Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, and has been recognized as a prominent voice in discussions about cryptocurrency regulation, stablecoins, and financial surveillance reform.

Early Life

Kathryn Rose Haun grew up in the United States and developed an early interest in law and public service. Details about her upbringing and family background remain largely private. She attended Boston University for her undergraduate education before pursuing a legal career.

Education

Haun earned her undergraduate degree from Boston University. She subsequently attended Stanford Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree. Her legal education at Stanford positioned her for a career in federal law enforcement and later provided connections to the Silicon Valley technology ecosystem that would prove instrumental in her transition to venture capital.

Career

Federal Prosecution

After completing her legal education, Haun joined the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of California. During her tenure, she served as a federal prosecutor for approximately a decade, handling a range of cases involving financial crimes, public corruption, and organized crime.

Haun became one of the first federal prosecutors to focus on crimes involving cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. She created a cryptocurrency task force within the U.S. Attorney's office at a time when most law enforcement agencies had limited understanding of digital assets. Her work in this area drew national attention, particularly her investigation into corruption within the federal investigation of the Silk Road, an online black market that operated on the dark web. In this case, Haun led the prosecution of two federal agents — a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a United States Secret Service agent — who were found to have stolen Bitcoin during the course of the Silk Road investigation. The case was among the first federal prosecutions involving cryptocurrency theft by law enforcement officials and underscored both the potential and the risks of digital currencies.

Her experience prosecuting cryptocurrency-related crimes gave Haun an unusual dual perspective: a deep understanding of the regulatory and law enforcement landscape surrounding digital assets, combined with firsthand exposure to the underlying technology. This background would later inform both her investment thesis and her public advocacy on issues of crypto regulation and financial surveillance.

Haun has spoken publicly about how her time as a prosecutor shaped her views on the limitations of existing financial surveillance laws. In a 2025 op-ed for the MIT Technology Review, she argued that the Bank Secrecy Act "allows for the bulk collection of American's financial data" and called for narrowing its scope.

Andreessen Horowitz

In 2018, Haun joined the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z) as a general partner, becoming the firm's first female general partner in its history. Her appointment coincided with the firm's launch of its first dedicated cryptocurrency fund, a $300 million vehicle focused on investing in blockchain technology and digital asset companies.

The hiring represented a notable development on multiple fronts. Andreessen Horowitz was one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the technology industry, and the appointment of a former federal prosecutor — rather than a technologist or financier — to lead a crypto-focused fund signaled a particular investment approach that emphasized regulatory understanding and institutional credibility. Additionally, Haun's appointment as the first woman to hold the general partner title at the firm was widely noted in technology and business media, given the venture capital industry's persistent gender imbalance.

At Andreessen Horowitz, Haun co-led the firm's crypto investment practice alongside Chris Dixon. During this period, she was involved in investments across a range of blockchain-related companies and protocols, helping to shape the firm's crypto investment strategy during a period of significant market volatility and growth in the digital asset sector.

In 2018, around the time she joined Andreessen Horowitz, Bitcoin was trading at approximately $4,000, and mainstream skepticism about cryptocurrency remained widespread. Her willingness to commit fully to the crypto sector at that juncture would later be characterized as a contrarian bet that paid off as digital assets grew in institutional acceptance.

Coinbase Board

Haun served as the first independent director on the board of Coinbase, the publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange. Her appointment to the Coinbase board predated the company's direct listing on the Nasdaq in April 2021 and gave her a governance role at one of the most significant companies in the cryptocurrency industry. She later departed from the Coinbase board.

Founding of Haun Ventures

In early 2022, Haun departed Andreessen Horowitz to establish her own venture capital firm, Haun Ventures. Based in Silicon Valley, the firm focuses on investments in web3, digital assets, and blockchain technology.

The firm's debut fundraise was substantial. In March 2022, Haun Ventures raised $1.5 billion across two funds — an early-stage fund and an acceleration fund — making it one of the largest initial fundraises for a venture firm founded by a solo female general partner. The fundraise occurred during a period of significant enthusiasm for crypto-related investments, though the broader cryptocurrency market would experience a sharp downturn later in 2022, including the collapse of the FTX exchange.

Despite the subsequent "crypto winter," Haun Ventures continued its investment activities. TechCrunch reported that Haun employed a "contrarian 'harpoon strategy' that targeted distressed crypto assets" during the market downturn, seeking opportunities in projects that had declined in valuation but retained technological promise.

Among Haun Ventures' notable investments was its participation in the crypto payments space. In October 2024, when Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company, in a $1.1 billion deal, it was reported as a significant outcome for venture capital investors in the crypto sector.

By March 2025, Haun Ventures was reported to be raising an additional $1 billion across two new funds, continuing its expansion amid what Fortune described as a "Trump-driven blockchain boom." The new fundraise, if completed, would bring total capital raised by the firm to approximately $2.5 billion since its founding, underscoring the firm's position as one of the most significant crypto-focused venture capital operations.

The secondary market for crypto venture investments also showed signs of recovery during this period, with Bloomberg reporting in 2024 that prices for secondaries in crypto funds were rising as expectations of initial public offerings in the sector climbed.

Stablecoin Advocacy and Policy Engagement

By 2025, Haun had emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the debate over stablecoin regulation in the United States. TechCrunch characterized her as a "stablecoin evangelist" in a June 2025 profile, noting her sustained advocacy for regulatory frameworks that would facilitate the growth of dollar-denominated stablecoins.

Haun publicly supported the GENIUS Act, a proposed piece of U.S. legislation aimed at establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins. In podcast appearances and public remarks, she discussed the implications of the bill for the broader cryptocurrency industry and the potential for stablecoins to extend the global reach of the U.S. dollar.

In an August 2025 opinion article for the Financial Times, Haun argued that stablecoins "can support financial safety," positioning them as a complement to — rather than a replacement for — the existing financial system. In multiple Bloomberg appearances in October 2025, she discussed stablecoin growth, the concept of a "debasement trade" in which investors turn to Bitcoin and other assets amid fiscal concerns, and the importance of consumers understanding who captures yield in stablecoin products.

Haun's advocacy extended beyond stablecoins to broader questions of financial surveillance. In her MIT Technology Review op-ed, she drew on her experience as a federal prosecutor to argue that the Bank Secrecy Act's mass data collection approach was both ineffective for law enforcement and harmful to civil liberties, advocating for more targeted surveillance methods.

Personal Life

Haun maintains a relatively private personal life. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Haun Ventures is headquartered. Details about her family life have not been extensively reported in public sources.

Recognition

Haun has received recognition from multiple business and technology publications. Bloomberg named her to its Bloomberg 50, a list of people who defined the year in global business, in 2022, profiling her transition from federal prosecutor to venture capitalist.

The New York Times profiled Haun in 2021, examining her role in the growing institutional embrace of cryptocurrency. Fortune has featured her in longform profiles examining the intersection of venture capital, crypto, and her background as a prosecutor.

Her record-setting $1.5 billion debut fundraise in 2022 was covered by The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Axios, among other outlets, with several noting its significance as an achievement for women in venture capital.

Haun was invited to discuss the future of cryptocurrency at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, one of the technology industry's most prominent annual conferences.

Her appointment in 2018 as the first female general partner at Andreessen Horowitz was noted as a milestone in an industry where women have been significantly underrepresented at senior levels. Vox reported on the appointment's significance for diversity in venture capital, noting that fewer than 10 percent of decision-makers at top venture firms were women at the time.

Legacy

Haun's career trajectory — from federal prosecutor to crypto venture capitalist — has been cited as an unusual path in the technology industry and has placed her at the center of debates about the future of cryptocurrency regulation and investment. Her prosecutorial background distinguishes her from most venture capitalists operating in the digital assets space and has informed a particular approach to investment and policy that emphasizes regulatory clarity and institutional legitimacy.

The founding of Haun Ventures and its $1.5 billion debut fundraise in 2022 demonstrated that substantial institutional capital could be raised for crypto-focused investment vehicles even as the broader venture capital industry confronted questions about the sector's long-term viability. The firm's subsequent decision to raise an additional $1 billion in 2025 reflected continued investor appetite for crypto venture strategies despite the market turbulence of 2022 and 2023.

Haun's public engagement on policy issues — from stablecoin regulation to financial surveillance reform — has positioned her as an intermediary between the cryptocurrency industry and policymakers. Her willingness to critique existing financial surveillance frameworks such as the Bank Secrecy Act, drawing on her direct experience enforcing such laws, has added a degree of credibility to arguments that have often been made by industry participants with less regulatory experience.

Her role as the first female general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and subsequently as the founder of one of the largest solo-GP venture funds has also contributed to broader conversations about gender representation in the venture capital industry.