In 2018, when Bitcoin traded about $4,000 and most Americans thought cryptocurrency was at least a trend, Katie Havn found herself in the debate stage in Mexico City, across the board from Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who dismissed digital assets as almost unworthy. When Krugman focused on the wild price movements of Bitcoin, Haun piloted the conversation towards something else, Stablecoins.
She argued on the stage, explaining how digital tokens are pinned to the US dollar offer the benefits of blockchain technology without the ups and downs of traditional cryptocurrencies.
Krugman completely dismissed the idea.
It wasn’t the turning point of Havn’s career, but it was especially brief that helped define it. The former federal prosecutor who spent more than a decade investigating financial crimes, including creating the government’s first cryptocurrency task force and investigating the future of Gox Mountain Hacks and corrupt agents in the Silk Road case, had an unusual background in Crypto champions. She was not the founder of libertarian ideologues or high-tech. Instead, she came from law enforcement, and she understood the criminal potential and legal use of digital assets.
By 2018, she already made history as Andreessen Horowitz’s first female partner, where she co-led their crypto fund. He founded Haun Ventures in 2022, managing over $1.5 billion in assets under management. The team is currently investing in brand new funds that have not yet been officially closed.
Her leap to hanging her own piece of iron wasn’t without its complexity. Despite her role in the A16Z and the industry connections that come with it, the two had not publicly invested in anything shortly after launching her fund in early 2022. Haun, who joined the Coinbase board in 2017, was directed by Marc Andreessen, who took the seat of his colleague Chris Dixon in 2020.
When asked about her relationship with Andreessen Horowitz Wednesday night at the StrictlyVC event on cryptoprune, she downplayed the potential friction and admitted that they were not collaborators. “There is no gentleman’s agreement,” she said. “In fact, I’m still talking to Andreessen Horowitz. You’re right that we haven’t really traded together recently.”
The obvious lack of co-investment may reflect the challenges associated with making one of the cutthroat industry or Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies compete directly with former colleagues. In any case, Haun is currently charting his courses, at the heart of which is Stablecoins. This is a cryptocurrency designed to maintain stable value by being pinned to traditional assets such as the US dollar.
Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, where values can swing wildly, Stablecoins like Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT are intended to trade for exactly one dollar, creating a digital representation of traditional currencies that can travel through blockchain networks.
Certainly, we’ve fast forward to today, and Horn’s belief in stubcoins seems increasingly forward-thinking. Stablecoins, which were barely present in 2015, are now worth $1 trillion. They are the 14th largest owner of the US Treasury worldwide. For the first time last year, the volume of Stablecoin transactions reportedly exceeded Visa.
“Do you think anyone who saw Stablecoins a few years ago thought what a value prop was?” Horn said Wednesday night. “You asked me this before. You said, ‘Why do I need a stub coin?’ And I said, ‘I call this the ‘If it works for me, it works for everyone’s’ problem. ”
In reality, for most Americans, the existing financial system works reasonably well. Venmo, bank account and credit card are available. But Havn says that she has long known that US experience is not universal, taking advantage of her prosecutor’s understanding of the global financial system.
In countries with unstable currencies or limited banking infrastructure, Stablecoins offers something unique, she argues. “Turkey people don’t think of tether as cryptocurrency,” she said Wednesday, “they think of tether as money.”
Certainly, since these early discussions, this technology has evolved dramatically. Stablecoins once cost $12 to send internationally. Circle also says its USDC Stablecoin is held in its JP Morgan Bank account and is fully supported, one-to-one for every dollar audited by Big Four accounting firms.
It’s no wonder the corporate world is very aware. Walmart and Amazon, like other Goliaths like Uber, Apple and Airbnb, are reportedly investigating Stablecoins. The reason is simple economics. Stablecoins offers a way to move the value of the US dollar using cryptocurrency rails instead of traditional banking infrastructure, potentially saving billions of people in these retailers.
However, critics are worried about economic disruptions from the change. Unlike traditional banks, Circles and Tethers are committed to having enough reserves to support the tokens, but there is no insured government protection behind these reserves. Relatedly, what happens to monetary policy and banking regulations if a large company can issue its own currency?
Concern runs deeper than mere economic disruption. Not all stubcoins are created equally, and many lack the support and oversight provided by companies like Circle. Well-regulated stubcoins like USDC are backed by the real dollars in US Treasury securities, while others rely on complex algorithmic mechanisms that are less transparent or vulnerable to collapse. (Terrausd has had the most mirror impact to date, and when it was noseed its $60 billion worth.)
Corruption concerns have recently been focused, especially when President Donald Trump’s family issued their own stubcoins.
These concerns came to mind as Congress discussed acts of genius, laws that created a federal framework for regulating stubcoin. The bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support last week, with 14 Democrats crossing the party’s line to support it. We are waiting for a house vote before we can reach the president’s desk.
But Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, has been particularly vocal about her opposition, calling the law “a super highway for Donald Trump’s corruption.” Her criticism focuses on the prominent gaps in the bill. While members of the council and senior executive officers have banned the issuance of Stablecoin products, they have said nothing about their families.
Asked about Warren’s concerns on Wednesday night, Havn actually rolled his eyes. “I think it’s really ironic that this corrupt Elizabeth Warren or other Democrats aren’t running to pass cryptography,” she said. “If there were (already) road rules, there would have been a framework. There would have been clear rules about what security is, what products are, and what consumer protection is around it.”
Haun (acquired for 10x previous revenues) with venture capital firms making numerous Stablecoin investments, including Bridges, is, of course, largely in favor of the law. However, she received one notable criticism when asked what she disliked about it.
“I don’t know if the stubcoins that support the yield are a good idea for US consumers, but I don’t know if the ban is a good idea,” she told participants at StrictlyVC. This question depends on who earned the profit from the interest earned from Stablecoin Remerves. The money is currently being sent to companies such as Circle and Coinbase. But Horn wonders why consumers shouldn’t get the yield just as much as savings accounts.
“If you have a savings account or checking account and you’re getting a yield on it, you’re interested,” she explained. “What happens if you say, “No, the bank earns interest and not you”?
Horn wasn’t too nuanced about another Warren’s concern. If a genius act is signed into law, stubcoins could become a means of money laundering and financing terrorism.
“Criminals are great beta testers for all their skills,” says Haun. “But this technology is very traceable and far more traceable than cash. The biggest criminal measure is dollar bills.” (According to Haun, the Treasury Department testifies that 99.9% of money laundering crimes are successful using traditional banking lines rather than cryptocurrencies.)
On the other hand, she said the regulatory clarity provided by laws like genius acts could actually make the system safer by distinguishing legitimate and well-supported stubcoins from more experimental or dangerous variants.
In fact, as the Stablecoin ecosystem continues to mature, Haun is seeing even greater changes ahead of time. She envisions a future in which all kinds of assets, from money market funds to real estate and private credit, will be “tokenized” and available to the global market 24/7.
“It’s just a digital representation of a physical asset,” she explains. “Franklin Templeton’s BlackRock, they’re already tokenizing money market funds. That’s already happening.”
According to Haun, tokenized assets could democratize access to investment in a similar way that Netflix has democratized entertainment. For example, instead of being wealthy enough to meet the minimum investment threshold, people with $25 and smartphones can buy fractional ownership with Apple or Amazon shares.
“Just because something is inevitable doesn’t mean it’s imminent,” Horn said Wednesday. But she is sure that transformation is coming, driven by the same forces that have made Stablecoins successful. They are faster, cheaper, and she claims to be more accessible than traditional alternatives.
Looking back at his 2018 discussion with Krugman, Haun’s tenacity seems to have paid off. The big question now isn’t whether the digital dollar will restructure the financial system, but perhaps more importantly, whether regulators can respond to technology while addressing legitimate concerns about corruption, consumer protection and financial stability.
Havn doesn’t seem to be worried. Critics point out that Stablecoins accounts for just 2% of global payments, but Haun beats that concern when he questioned the suitability of the product market. Instead, she sees this as a familiar technology adoption story. This unfolds repeatedly and often takes longer than people first imagine.
“We think it’s really early,” she told the crowd.
If you want to know more about what Haun had to say over the past week, check out the full conversation below.
