Katie Haun, the Prosecutor-Turned-VC

Katie Haun got exposed to cryptocurrencies as a federal prosecutor. She led the US Department of Justice’s investigation into the hack of the Mt. Gox exchange and created the DOJ’s first task force to investigate criminal uses of digital currencies. She was intrigued by how crypto enabled crime—but also by how it made criminals easier to trace, given that they create a record of their activities on the blockchain.

After leaving government, Haun joined the board of crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc. In 2018 fellow board member Chris Dixon recruited her to Andreessen Horowitz, where she became the first female general partner. (Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg Businessweek, has invested in Andreessen Horowitz.) She oversaw some of the company’s most influential crypto investments, including in nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea, and helped fashion Andreessen Horowitz into a crypto powerhouse.