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Sat, 10 Jan 15

VCs Talking Bitcoin

Over the past few months, VCTalk has been gathering top links shared by venture capital insiders. As 2015 gets into gear, we see investors outlining trends and predictions. In addition to devices, wearables and cloud services, Bitcoin has gained currency, so to speak, as an investment thesis.

Last week, Marc Andreessen reiterated his bullish stance with a longer than usual tweetstorm in response to recent downbeat coverage regarding volatility and thefts on Bitcoin exchanges.

Not surprising, since Andressen Horowitz has invested close to $30 million in Bitcoin related startups. Partners Chris Dixon and Balaji Srinivasan are renowned for their well-reasoned arguments for Bitcoin. Chris has outlined some ideas for native bitcoin apps, while Balaji leads the Stanford Bitcoin Group researching bitcoin theory and applications. A16Z is unquestionably the thought leader and the prime backer for Bitcoin startups.

As a result or as a measure of their success, they are no longer alone. A simple search of the vctalk links archive for “bitcoin” brings up a large list of other VCs. These VCs are sharing links about exchanges, wallets, regulation, funding, startups (e.g. Coinbase), payments, adoption and acceptance (e.g. Microsoft). Blockchain related items show up a lot, reflecting VC emphasis on the underlying technology.

Here is a small list, in descending order by number of bitcoin links shared.

Other organizations include @TransMediaCap, @benchmark, @NEAVC, @seedcamp, @FundersClub, @rothventures, @HighlandCapital, @BirchmereVC, @techstarts, @redswanventures, @tribecavp and @canaanpartners.

Keep in mind that we are simply tracking their interest in terms of news and events surrounding Bitcoin. They may not have any investments yet. Also note that @pmarca, @balajis, @cdixon, @withfries2 and @a16z have been excluded so as to free up the top slots and highlight the rest.

There are likely many notable promoters and investors, such as Joel Monegro and Keith Rabois, who don’t show up on this list, because they don’t share any or enough links. Our goal here is to simply highlight those who are active. Hopefully, it gives some insights into how others are positioning themselves for emerging opportunities.

What other kinds of counts and correlations would you find useful? Let us know.

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