Chris Dixon: Crypto Could Displace Big Internet Companies as Power Broker

American investor and founder of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) cryptocurrency arm, Chris Dixon, has stated that the venture capital firm believes Web3 and crypto assets have the potential to upset the power imbalance brought about by large internet corporations like Facebook and Twitter.

According to Dixon, the power on the internet currently belongs to a small group of companies, which is not an ideal situation for investors and entrepreneurs.

“I don’t think this is a good outcome,” Dixon stated in an interview. “The idea of having the internet controlled by five companies is very bad for entrepreneurs and bad for VCs,” he added.

A16z has raised over $7.6 billion to invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups since the launch of the crypto arm in 2018. That includes its fourth crypto fund, which was launched in May with $4.5 billion despite the recent market decline.

Chris Dixon, however, remains unfazed in the face of the recent market woes, stating that he views the slide as a chance to make more investments. “In venture capital, you’re hopefully buying low and selling high, so my experience has been that downturns have been opportunities,” he stated.

Several big names in traditional finance are starting to embrace blockchain technology regularly. On Monday, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), which processes all trades in the US stock market, revealed that it is using its private Project Ion blockchain to handle hundreds of thousands of settlement transactions a day, while French bank BNP Paribas also stated that it is currently using JP Morgan’s blockchain network, Onyx.

Chris Dixon stated that crypto and blockchain technology offers safeguards by writing rules of code into a smart contract. “What we can do to create a better internet is to create new systems where the network effects accrue to the community instead of to companies,” he stated.

The crypto market has seen severe volatility this year, wiping out millions as cryptocurrencies continue to lose value. Bitcoin dropped to as low as $17,000 in June, just a few months after touching its record high of $69,000 in November of last year.

ETH, Ripple’s XRP, Binance’s BNB coin, and a heap of other altcoins have also endured the same volatility, with some losing as much as half of their value on the crypto ladder. The market volatility also traveled to the metaverse, as some of its digital coins also saw a decline in value.

Bitcoin at press time was trading at $21,463, down 10.75% in the last seven days. The second largest cryptocurrency, ETH, is also down 15.03% in that same period. Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and the meme-coin turned internet sensation, Dogecoin (DOGE), are all down over 18% in the same period.