KATHRYN HAUN may now be a crypto millionaire, but she was once tasked by the US Government with shutting down Bitcoin.
So what is the story behind the founder of the crypto venture capitalist, and what is her net worth?
Who is Kathryn Haun?
Kathryn Haun believes the logic behind many of her career decisions can be found in her upbringing. With a dad who worked for a Fortune 500 company, as a young American Haun found herself travelling a lot internationally.
She was constantly on the move in her early years before moving to Egypt with her family as a teenager.
“I was always uprooted. My dad worked for a large company and we were always moving – just when I would get comfortable in one space,” she said of the experience in an interview.
“I think that’s pretty important if you fast-forward and look at my career, I’m comfortable being in uncomfortable situations.”
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Describing her later career decisions, she added: “I’m taken right back to my teenage years in Cairo, moving from Huston Texas one day to downtown Maadi in Cairo the next.”
In 1993 she moved back to the US to attend Boston University, before then graduating from Stanford Law School in the year 2000.
From there Haun went to work as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and later became a federal prospector.
She also prosecuted murderers, organised crime, money laundering, and corruption.
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Haun recalled in a sit down chat about her career: “There was really not a criminal case by that point in my career that I hadn’t done.
“And It was right around that time – 2012 – one of my bosses came in and said ‘let’s have that same energy that you brought to those gang cases, to those murder cases, and let’s go and have you investigate this new criminal technology that we really need to look into and possibly shut this down’.”
The approach was the first time that Haun would encounter Bitcoin, with her bosses eager for her to outlaw the cryptocurrency.
“Fortunately several of us in the Government at the time realised it’s not possible, also not desirable,” she said.
Haun saw crypto as being similar to cash: Bitcoin itself was not a criminal activity, but criminals were using it to conduct their business.
Rather than focusing on attempting to prosecute cryptocurrency itself, she looked at investigating those who were using Bitcoin in a bid to avoid detection.
In one case the prosecutor even found two FBI agents using Bitcoin to steal about 20,000 bitcoin.
After over a decade of enforcing the law, Haun decided it was time for a change and became a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in 2018. She also served on the boards of OpenSea, Coinbase, and other companies backed by the firm.
After successfully guiding Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto projects, the former prosecutor turned venture capitalist decided to start her own fund focusing on promising digital currency areas.
She left in 2021 before setting up named Haun Ventures at the start of 2022.
“I felt very supported when I shared that decision and I would say it wasn’t running away from Andreessen Horowitz, it was running to another opportunity,” she said of her decision to leave her former company.
Andreessen Horowitz was even one of the original backers of the new firm with the founder raising $1.5billion for her outfit. The fund is the largest debut fundraised by a solo female venture capitalist.
Haun’s success raised has been hailed by other prominent female trailblazers, with tennis player Serena Williams praising her in March 2022.
The sportswoman tweeter: “Wow. Kathryn Haun I see you woman and I can hear you roar! Congrats my friend.”
Haun Ventures will mainly invest in start-up and protocol companies and some of the cryptocurrencies issued by these firms.
While the crypto markets have seen a huge downturn in fortune this year, Haun remains optimistic about the future of her fund.
Dismissing fears about immediate price drops, she said: “We’re making 7-10 year bets.”
Haun Ventures says it is investing in projects “through two platforms: a $500million early stage fund and a $1billion acceleration fund”.
What is Kathryn Haun’s net worth?
Kathryn Haun’s net worth is estimated to be over $82.5million.
She owns over 2,418 Coinbase Global and Class A Common Stock units worth over $1,848,890 and over 80,700,000 shares of COIN stock.
