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- Billionaire Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of crypto venture capital firm A16z, is rumored to leave his position as one of the board of directors of Meta due to his firm’s investments in the Web3 sphere.
- Meta has already started exploring various Metaverse-related Web3 projects, meaning that the crypto empire of a16z could face conflicts of interest.
- Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor, will leave his position in May because of crypto investments in Block. one and BitPanda.
There are speculations that Billionaire Marc Andreessen, co-founder of crypto venture capital firm A16z will not be part of the board of directors of Meta anymore because of his firm’s investments in the Web 3 space.
On March 25, a source familiar with the situation quoted saying that it wouldn’t be a surprise if Andressen left the board in a few months. It is expected that Andreessen will leave the board around the time of re-election in May.
However, Andreessen has not yet made any public comment in relation to the Meta board.
Meta, on the other hand, has already started acquiring various Metaverse-related Web3 projects, finance, NFTs, social networking, and entertainment, meaning that the crypto empire of a16z can incite conflicts of interest. Meta also applied to patent user identification software often used in hardware and e-wallets like Ledger or Metamask on March 18.
a16z is among the leading companies in the cryptocurrency space. Recently, it assisted in the investment round in Yuga Labs, the creator of BAYC, and launched a fund worth $30 million on March 11 in order to support the non-fungible token (NFT) art projects. $450 million raised in an investment round in Yuga Labs became the largest NFT project seed round.
NFT marketplace OpenSea, centralized exchange Coinbase, decentralized lending platform Compound, DeFi protocol Maker, decentralized exchange Uniswap are among the previous and active investments of A16z.
In mid last year, A16z raised funds worth $2.2 billion for its third crypto fund and plans to collect around $4.5 billion for its next fund in the upcoming months; it will be the largest venture of its kind to date.
However, a16z spokesperson dismissed all the rumors and stated, “If he were to step down, he doesn’t know about it. So no, it’s not happening. At least not now.”
Andreessen has been a member of the former Facebook board since 2008, a period longer than other non-Meta team members. Due to reasons such as crypto investments in Block. one and BitPanda, the crypto trading platform Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor, will leave the position in May.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
