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Sequoia now has a crypto fund, too

The VC firm's move to register as an investment adviser is allowing it to diversify.

Sequoia’s Roelof Botha

Sequoia, now led by Roelof Botha, has launched a fund focused on crypto tokens.

Photo: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Sequoia Capital has launched a new investment fund focused on crypto tokens, according to a report.

The venture capital giant is allocating $500 million for a new strategy geared toward acquiring and earning returns from cryptocurrencies, Axios reported Thursday.

"This fund will let us manage these tokens differently, from staking to voting rights and having a say on governance,” Sequoia partner Alfred Lin told Axios. About 20% of the VC firm’s investments over the past year were for crypto startups, Lin said.

The crypto fund appears to be in line with Sequoia’s new strategy. The creation of the Sequoia Capital Fund and the firm's move to register as an investment adviser both allow it to hold investments beyond the traditional 10-year VC timeline and invest in nontraditional asset classes like crypto.

Andreessen Horowitz, one of Sequoia's fiercest competitors in venture capital, has led the charge into crypto. New investment firms focused on crypto like Paradigm and KRH Partners have also emerged.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

cryptocurrencysequoiaventure capital
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