Venture capitalist Jesse Walden made his name as a crypto investor—a job he says will disappear before the decade is out. “In four years, being a crypto investor will be like being an ‘Internet investor’,” says Walden, who started his investing career at Andreessen Horowitz before founding his own crypto-focused firm, Variant, in 2020.
This looming disappearance of crypto as a stand-alone investment category has not, however, prevented Walden from raising $222 million for Variant 4, a new fund dedicated to investing in companies at the earliest possible stage and supporting them as they grow. In an interview with Fortune, Walden explained he stands by the crypto themes that defined Variant’s first three funds, but that he has widened the firm’s thesis to account for recent developments in the industry, and the fast-changing world of AI.
