LP sometimes asks me who I think the best venture capitalist in the cryptocurrency space is.

Article author, compiler: Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly, Gu Yu,

Source: ChainCatcher

I often think about this question.

Since I started in cryptocurrency venture capital, I have always aspired to be the best. I am driven by competition, and investing itself is a pure competition. Ultimately, only one person can win the deal, and only one person can predict the winner of the cycle.

But when you take a serious look and analyze, you will find that three people have proven themselves to be the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in cryptocurrency venture capital.

This may sound a bit off-topic (and indeed it is), and it may not be appealing to non-crypto investors. But I am one of them. So, this article is written for all those who have made investing in cryptocurrency their lifelong career.

Third place: Dan Robinson (General Partner and Head of Research at Paradigm)

Mike Speiser, Managing Partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, incubated Snowflake and grew it into a company with a market value of $75 billion, which is truly a legendary story. The value that venture capitalists can create for portfolio companies is simply unprecedented.

Dan Robinson is the Mike Speiser of the cryptocurrency world.

Dan has been involved again and again in the development of several groundbreaking companies in the cryptocurrency space. He has been involved since the inception of Uniswap, and he is one of the co-authors and foundational figures of Uniswap V3, which later became the cornerstone of on-chain spot trading. He is also an early key contributor to Flashbots, which gave rise to modern MEV auctions. Additionally, he is an early research contributor to Plasma (the predecessor of Rollup) and led the seed round funding for Optimism because of that.

Dan is a true polymath. He breaks the mold of traditional venture capitalists. He originally was a securities lawyer, then became a self-taught protocol architect and mathematician, and now is a self-taught investor. Perhaps the smartest investment Matt Huang made was hiring Dan. We often miss out on deals because of Paradigm, often because people say: Yes, you guys are great, but sorry, I have to work with Dan.

The most frightening investors are those who do not just invest. Dan saw the direction of the entire industry and consistently rolled up his sleeves to drive it forward. This has made him one of the greatest investors of all time and earned him a place on the 'Mount Rushmore' of cryptocurrency.

Second place: Chris Dixon (a16z partner)

Chris Dixon is a veteran in the cryptocurrency space. He saw the potential of cryptocurrency earlier than anyone else. Before Chris, cryptocurrency venture capital was still a niche field.

He was the first mainstream venture capitalist to publicly enter the cryptocurrency field and stake his career on it. He was the first to bring the language of venture capital into the cryptocurrency and web investment space. He was also the first to introduce these concepts to Silicon Valley and its institutional LP circle. Many of the concepts we discuss internally every day are directly borrowed from Chris. It is no exaggeration to say that I am following the path Chris originally paved for himself.

I believe Chris Dixon facilitated the two most important deals. The first, of course, is Coinbase. In 2013, when the cryptocurrency industry was still in its infancy and everything was uncertain, Chris led the Series B funding for Coinbase. This deal perfectly illustrates the principle of Dixonism — "The smartest things are done by the smartest people on weekends; ten years later, everyone else will do it." He completed this deal with great foresight and then doubled down, fully entering the entire industry. When Chris initially did these things, it was much harder to achieve what we are now doing.

The second deal was Uniswap. Almost everyone who saw Uniswap's Series A funding passed on the investment (at the time, Uniswap's final valuation was only $100 million — Uniswap was quite small then). At that time, we were intensely discussing whether the capital efficiency of AMMs was high enough, whether there would be too much adverse selection, and whether it was easy to be forked. Paradigm passed (even though they led the seed round), we also passed, and to my knowledge, other members of the a16z investment committee did not want to participate in this deal.

But what about Chris? It is said that Chris said, "A smart contract that can buy and sell anything? Sounds too cool. Who knows what will happen — let's give it a try." He was right. It really is cool. With the advent of permissionless AMMs, all sorts of unexpected things will occur. Passing on the Series A funding taught me a profound lesson.

I disagree with a16z on many points. But everyone in this industry should express genuine respect for Chris. He has pushed the cryptocurrency industry to its current cultural status more effectively than any other venture capitalist. He has dedicated his life to promoting and legitimizing cryptocurrency in Washington, D.C., ultimately earning cultural recognition as a positive frontier technology. Much of the language we use about cryptocurrency today comes directly from Chris.

Without Chris's early strong support, cryptocurrency venture capital would not have achieved today's success. For this, we are sincerely grateful to him.

And this leads us to the number one ranked venture capitalist in history...

First place: Kyle Samani (Co-founder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital)

Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.

I often complain about Kyle. He always annoys a lot of people — including me. It has always been this way.

But investing is like a sport. In the end, either you score, or you score nothing.

Kyle's score, however, is the highest among everyone. The enormous profits he gained from his seed investment in Solana and the effort he put into that deal will one day be written into a book, and I will certainly frown throughout the reading.

You see, the best investors are contrarian investors. And Kyle is a true contrarian investor. Being a contrarian investor does not mean you write a popular article and have a bunch of people say, "Wow, that’s really smart." If everyone wants to retweet your tweet, then by definition, you’re not a contrarian investor. When you annoy others, you know you are a true contrarian investor. When people think you’re a fool. When they think you’re burning money.

Kyle is one of the few true contrarian investors in the cryptocurrency space. I disagree with almost all of his views. But his initial investment and his steadfast belief in holding onto Solana through the downturn after the FTX collapse undoubtedly make him one of the greatest venture capitalists in the history of cryptocurrency.

We often say that venture capital follows a power law. Kyle and his legendary Solana investment are a perfect illustration of this law. Sometimes, it really only takes one deal to succeed.

And this is precisely why Kyle is the best cryptocurrency venture capitalist of all time.

These are my top three.

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LPs sometimes ask me who should be at the top of this list.

Although I hold myself in high regard — and I am indeed very arrogant — I do not think I can rank in the top three. I certainly can make the top ten, and possibly the top five, but I am definitely not in the same league as any of these three. I hope one day, before the end of my career, I can surpass them. If compared seasonally, I do have some seasons where I've performed better than each of them.

But overall? These three are the best of all time.

Praising my competitors does not help Dragonfly. But there is a deeper meaning behind the game. You see, being an investor in this industry is very tough — most of my peers I have encountered along the way have not been able to stick around. The competition in the cryptocurrency industry is fierce.

Despite competing with them every day, I have great respect for them. I have witnessed their growth through the ups and downs over the past nearly ten years. We have weathered the storms of cryptocurrency together, supporting founders, supporting the industry, and helping it stand shoulder to shoulder with any other technology. At the end of the year, I feel it is necessary to pay tribute to them, as venture capitalists are often rarely praised in this industry.

Whether they realize it or not, each of them has done a lot for me. I have learned a lot from each of them. I genuinely hope they can be proud of their achievements.

Dan Robinson has keen insights.

Chris Dixon was the first to see the insight.

Kyle Samani, on the other hand, persevered.

Cheers to everyone. Wishing for fiercer competition in the new year.