Topic
Author
The Flattening
Mar 17, 2026
The Fraud Thesis
Mar 10, 2026
Geeks Like Us
Mar 6, 2026
Everything Is Market
Feb 13, 2026
We Are Not Onboarding Institutions (for Now)
Feb 11, 2026
Thoughts on the Law of Insider Trading and Prediction Markets
Feb 6, 2026
Prediction Markets Meet Derivatives Law
Feb 3, 2026
Investing in Derive
Feb 2, 2026
The 7 Powers in Crypto
Jan 26, 2026
You Can’t Outsource Your Voice
Jan 21, 2026
Trench Tech
Dec 17, 2025
Investing in Pye
Dec 9, 2025
Policy-driven M&A
Nov 20, 2025
2025 Crypto Trends Report
Nov 18, 2025
Putting All Your Calls in One Basket
Nov 17, 2025
Marketing a Token Launch: A Checklist for Crypto Founders
Nov 5, 2025
The Quiet Maturation of Crypto x AI
Nov 4, 2025
Investing in MetaDAO
Oct 24, 2025
Bringing Perps to the People: A Proposal for Perpetual Futures Regulation in the U.S.
Oct 8, 2025
Investing in Takenos
Oct 7, 2025
Investing in Melee Markets: Permissionless Prediction Markets with Uncapped Upside
Sep 24, 2025
The World Network Opportunity: Request for Builders
Sep 23, 2025
Four Categories I’m Excited About
Sep 19, 2025
Policy Is the New Edge
Sep 18, 2025
How to Act Like a GENIUS
Sep 18, 2025
Second-Order Prediction Market Opportunities
Sep 17, 2025
Hourglass Markets: On Crypto, Cross-Border and Beyond
Sep 15, 2025
String It Together: How Stablecoins Go Mainstream
Aug 11, 2025
Control is a Spectrum
Jul 7, 2025
Tokens Versus Equity
Jun 26, 2025
Investing in Project Eleven: Securing Crypto’s Post-Quantum Future
Jun 19, 2025
Fractal Protocols: Strategies for Defending Against Open Supply in Crypto
May 29, 2025
What We’re Looking For in DePIN (Pt. 2)
May 21, 2025
Building Collective-Intelligence Systems
May 20, 2025
Agents in a Bazaar
May 13, 2025
How to Pick a VC
May 9, 2025
How a Safe Harbor for Token Issuance Could Work
Apr 18, 2025
What We’re Looking For in DePIN (Pt. 1)
Apr 15, 2025
Investing in Plastic Labs
Apr 10, 2025
Good Crypto x AI Projects Actually Use Crypto’s Strengths
Apr 1, 2025
Agents as NFTs
Mar 25, 2025
Investing in Pluralis Research
Mar 19, 2025
Using Crypto Ownership to Solve the Resource Problem
Mar 17, 2025
Policy Priorities to Make the USA the Crypto Capital of the World
Mar 7, 2025
Yes, Ethereum Should Go to Washington
Mar 6, 2025
Liability Considerations for Agent Developers in Crypto
Feb 25, 2025
Investing in Whetstone
Feb 11, 2025
DAO 2.0 Product Ideas
Jan 31, 2025
Unchaining Web2 Data Onchain: What Agents and Oracles Need to Know About the Law
Jan 31, 2025
Why (Good) AI Needs Crypto
Jan 16, 2025
Reflections on the State of Crypto – H2 2024
Jan 9, 2025
DAOs 2.0
Dec 13, 2024
DevRel == Sales in a Trench Coat
Dec 13, 2024
Investing in Hyperbolic
Dec 10, 2024
What Are Agents Good At?
Dec 3, 2024
Analyzing Criminal Liability for Unlicensed Money Transmitting Businesses Under Section 1960
Dec 2, 2024
Beyond Speculation and Stablecoins: Crypto’s Next Phase?
Nov 22, 2024
The World Network Opportunity: A Greenfield for Builders
Nov 14, 2024
Investing in Sapien
Oct 30, 2024
Investing in Satflow
Oct 23, 2024
Investing in delta
Oct 9, 2024
Variant Research Day: Future of Crosschain
Oct 2, 2024
A Practical Guide to Geofencing
Sep 30, 2024
The Next Ten Years of Smart Contract Blockchains
Sep 29, 2024
Only with Crypto / Better with Crypto
Sep 28, 2024
Toward a More Connected Internet
Sep 23, 2024
What Credit Card Networks Can Teach Us About Stablecoin Opportunities
Sep 18, 2024
How Enforceability of Terms of Service Relates to UI
Sep 9, 2024
Browser Extensions, the CFAA and User Control
Aug 19, 2024
How to Build a Pitch Deck
Aug 2, 2024
On DeFi Superapps and Their Bottlenecks
Aug 2, 2024
Investing in Morpho (Again)
Aug 1, 2024
Things We’re Excited About in Crypto
Aug 1, 2024
The Future of DEX Trading
Jul 24, 2024
Examining SEC v. Consensys
Jul 17, 2024
Variant Builder Day (Security): Spearbit
Jul 16, 2024
Variant Builder Day (Security): Turnkey
Jul 16, 2024
Variant Builder Day (Interoperability): Reservoir
Jul 10, 2024
Variant Builder Day (Interoperability): Across Protocol
Jul 10, 2024
Variant Builder Day (Interoperability): Hyperlane
Jul 10, 2024
How to Structure Engineering Organizations for Efficiency and Operational Rigor
Jun 27, 2024
A Framework for Thinking About Opportunities in Tokenized Marketplaces
Jun 25, 2024
Crypto as Culture, Crypto as Tech
Jun 20, 2024
Tokenized Marketplaces: Bootstrapping and Scaling Active vs. Passive Supply
Jun 20, 2024
AI and the ‘Why Now’ of Data DAOs
Jun 18, 2024
Reflections on the State of Crypto: Q2 2024
Jun 18, 2024
All Media Onchain: Crypto as a Port of Entry
Jun 11, 2024
Crypto and Net-New Marketplaces
Jun 7, 2024
Signal to Noise
Jun 4, 2024
How We’re Thinking About AI
May 31, 2024
Verticalization of the Web3 Social Stack
May 30, 2024
Investing in Farcaster
May 21, 2024
On the Intersection of AI and Crypto
May 17, 2024
AI Models with Taste
May 7, 2024
On Non-Transferability, Geofencing, and the Regulatory Risk Spectrum of Token Distributions
Apr 30, 2024
Requests for Startups for the Farcaster Ecosystem
Apr 1, 2024
Crypto as the Next Iteration of the Attention Economy
Mar 29, 2024
Memecoins as the New GTM Strategy
Mar 26, 2024
DeFi Opportunities on High-Performance Chains
Mar 8, 2024
ETHDenver Conversation: Why Sufficient Decentralization Is No Longer Sufficient
Mar 5, 2024
Crypto Goes on Offense in the Courts
Feb 26, 2024
Dissecting the Points Meta: Best Practices for User Loyalty
Feb 14, 2024
New Opportunities in the Farcaster Stack
Feb 7, 2024
Headless Marketplaces: Go Where the Wallets Are
Jan 29, 2024
Investing in Gevulot: A Performant Market for Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Jan 29, 2024
Multi-Hit Wonders: Embracing Apps With Short Shelf Life
Jan 25, 2024
Onchain Namespaces: An Emerging Crypto Business Model
Jan 25, 2024
Requests for Startups: Crypto Projects We’d Like to See in 2024
Jan 5, 2024
A Tale of Two Cryptos: Speculation vs Decentralization
Jan 4, 2024
Building Through the Crypto Cycle: A Variant/USV Portfolio Survey on Web3 Hiring and Compensation
Dec 21, 2023
Lessons on Points Programs for Crypto Apps
Dec 19, 2023
Building in the Dark: Mapping the Current Crypto Privacy Landscape
Dec 14, 2023
New Signs of Life in the Ethereum & L2 NFT Ecosystem
Dec 8, 2023
Crypto AI Agents: The First-Class Citizens of Onchain Economies
Dec 5, 2023
What Onchain Apps Enable
Dec 1, 2023
Progressive Ownership: A Model for Application Tokens
Nov 14, 2023
Love vs. Fame: A Framework for Social Applications
Nov 10, 2023
NFTs and the Post-Mint Problem
Nov 9, 2023
The Next Big Thing in Stablecoins
Nov 7, 2023
Investing in Modulus: Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning for Decentralized Protocols
Nov 1, 2023
Doubling Down on Botto: Because Everyone’s a Critic
Oct 25, 2023
Investing in Blockaid: Protecting Users Onchain
Oct 23, 2023
The Promise of Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Personae and Pluto
Oct 12, 2023
Embracing Speculation as a Go-To-Market Approach in DeFi
Oct 11, 2023
Welcoming Jake Chervinsky as Variant’s Chief Legal Officer
Oct 3, 2023
Why Bringing Real-World Assets Onchain Is Important
Sep 29, 2023
The Barrier to Mainstream Crypto Adoption Isn’t UX — It’s Product-Market Fit
Sep 26, 2023
Recruiting and Hiring for Early-Stage Web3 Startups: OpenSea’s Calder Zwerling
Sep 21, 2023
Variant Founder Fellowship: Meet Our 2023 Cohort
Sep 20, 2023
Web3 Startup Messaging 101 with Comms Veteran Kristin Sauchak
Sep 11, 2023
What Brand Marketing Can and Can’t Do in Web3: Ryan Wyatt
Sep 5, 2023
Debate: Speculation as Growth Strategy for Social Apps
Aug 31, 2023
Rethinking Decentralized Trust: EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan
Aug 29, 2023
Getting ‘Modular-Pilled’ with Nick White of Celestia
Aug 28, 2023
Why Wallets Will Rule Web3: Dynamic’s Itai Turbahn
Aug 28, 2023
The Rising Importance of Intents in Web3: Succinct’s Uma Roy
Aug 28, 2023
How Founders Should Approach Shared Sequencers: Astria’s Josh Bowen
Aug 28, 2023
Where Interoperability and Modularity Meet: Hyperlane’s Jon Kol
Aug 28, 2023
How To Improve Your Web3 Project’s UI/UX: Slope’s Jeffrey Zhao
Aug 21, 2023
Denis Nazarov Holds Up a Mirror to Onchain Brands
Aug 10, 2023
Shane Mac Has a Message to Deliver (via Your Blockchain Wallet)
Aug 9, 2023
‘Pop Music Is a Promise That You Aren’t Listening Alone’: What AI Music Can and Can’t Do
Aug 7, 2023
Applying Lessons from Web2 to Unlock Web3 Product Growth: Casey Winters
Aug 2, 2023
Case Studies in Psychological Ownership: Li Jin
Aug 1, 2023
How DEXs Are Demonstrating Their Resilience
Aug 1, 2023
Building a Truly Scalable Lending Protocol: Morpho at EthCC
Jul 31, 2023
Uniswap Founder Hayden Adams: Product vs Protocol
Jul 27, 2023
Why UniswapX Will Be Additive to the Uniswap Protocol
Jul 25, 2023
DePIN and DeREN: Toward a Better Classification of Decentralized Infrastructure Networks
Jul 20, 2023
Joining Variant: Jack Gorman aka J Hackworth
Jul 12, 2023
Investing in Alluvial: Liquid Staking for Institutions
Jul 11, 2023
‘This Protocol Is Brought to You By’: An Onchain Model for Web3 Advertising
Jun 30, 2023
App-Specific Rollups: A Trade-Off Between Connectivity and Control
Jun 30, 2023
Overcoming ‘Token Debt’
Jun 15, 2023
Web3 Social Networks: The Case For and Against Financialized Approaches
May 31, 2023
Adventures in Onchain Ownership
May 26, 2023
SocialFi: A Blank Canvas for Web3 Social Apps
May 24, 2023
Web3 Social Media Under the Lens
May 17, 2023
Generative Art Will Be a Multiplayer Exercise in Meaning-Making
May 16, 2023
Building Base: Coinbase Engineer Jesse Pollak on Ecosystem Growth
May 15, 2023
Centralized Dapps Through Tokenized Rebates: A Modest Proposal
May 8, 2023
Actionable Tips for New DevRel Teams
May 5, 2023
AI, NFTs, and Proof of Personhood: The Frontier of the Crypto Creator Economy
Apr 27, 2023
The Interplay Between AI Abundance + Crypto Scarcity
Apr 25, 2023
Libraries vs. Networks
Apr 6, 2023
Building Psychological Attachment — Not Just Ownership — Into Web3
Apr 4, 2023
The NFT MEV Landscape
Mar 31, 2023
Investing in Turnkey: Removing Barriers for Crypto Developers
Mar 21, 2023
About the Variant Network
Mar 20, 2023
Product vs Network-Driven GTM
Feb 28, 2023
Variant x Botto in OnCyber
Feb 17, 2023
Consumer Tokens Should Look Like Web2 Incentive Programs
Feb 17, 2023
Whole Crypto Catalog: Progressive Decentralization
Feb 3, 2023
The Next Frontier in Cryptoeconomic Business Models
Feb 1, 2023
Productive Fees: Valuable Protocols / Extractive Fees: Valuable Companies
Jan 30, 2023
More Than Semantics: “Crypto” vs. “Web3” Is About What Will Be Decentralized
Jan 30, 2023
Hybrid Ownership
Jan 26, 2023
Variant Values
Jan 25, 2023
Canto: A Layer-1 Incentive Experiment
Jan 19, 2023
Progressive Decentralization for Media
Jan 16, 2023
Cross-Chain Order Flow Auctions
Jan 10, 2023
Investing in DIMO: The User-Owned Mobility Network
Dec 12, 2022
Investing in Shibuya: Decentralized Creativity
Dec 8, 2022
Investing in Perennial: A New Era of DeFi Derivatives
Dec 7, 2022
Pro Nouns
Dec 6, 2022
The Long View: Web3 and User Ownership
Dec 2, 2022
Investing in NiftyApes: Building a Better NFT Debt Market
Nov 1, 2022
When Tokens Shape Behavior
Oct 18, 2022
When to Launch a Token
Sep 28, 2022
The New Creator Playbook
Sep 27, 2022
Investing in Hyperlane and the Bridge to a Multichain Future
Sep 22, 2022
Fans Are the New Creators
Sep 1, 2022
A New DeFi Security Paradigm
Aug 31, 2022
Tokens Are Products
Aug 24, 2022
Designing Governance Tokens
Aug 16, 2022
Music NFTs Can Revamp Music Royalties
Aug 12, 2022
What Can Tokens Do?
Aug 3, 2022
Sufficient Decentralization
Aug 2, 2022
Introducing Variant Fund III
Jul 28, 2022
Joining Variant: Alana Levin
Jul 18, 2022
Investing in Empiric Network: Oracles That Expand What’s Possible in Web3
Jul 15, 2022
Joining Variant: Mason Nystrom
Jul 1, 2022
The Unbundling of Wallets
Jun 30, 2022
The Garden of Magic Eden
Jun 29, 2022
The 0-to-100 Guide on Stablecoin Designs and Risks
May 12, 2022
A Theory of Justice for Web3
May 10, 2022
The Ownership Economy 2022
Apr 28, 2022
Recent Trends in Token Distribution
Apr 25, 2022
Joining Variant: Derek Walkush
Apr 13, 2022
What Is the Future of NFT Marketplaces?
Mar 1, 2022
Joining Variant: Alli Pope
Feb 15, 2022
Joining Variant: Geoff Hamilton
Jan 31, 2022
7 Steps to Transition to Web3
Jan 6, 2022
The Web3 Renaissance
Dec 20, 2021
Product vs. Protocol: Finding a Balance in Web3
Nov 29, 2021
The Future of Unions Is Decentralized
Nov 18, 2021
Music NFTs Are the Next Generation of Collectibles
Nov 8, 2021
Li Jin on the Future of the Creator Economy
Nov 8, 2021
The Blockchain-Based Global Supercomputer
Nov 1, 2021
What NFTs Can Learn From the Success of Legos
Oct 20, 2021
Variant Fund II: $110M Fund Built for the Ownership Economy
Oct 19, 2021
The Passion Economy Is the What, the Ownership Economy Is the How
Oct 19, 2021
A Labor Movement for the Platform Economy
Sep 24, 2021
The Creator Economy Is in Crisis. Now Let’s Fix It.
Aug 10, 2021
Bankless Podcast: Li Jin on the Creator Economy
Jul 1, 2021
Ownership Will Decide the Battle Between Platform and Participant
Jun 24, 2021
Fred Ehrsam’s Podcast: Jesse Walden on Creators, Communities, and Crypto
Jun 23, 2021
Apple Is Holding Back the Creator Economy
May 10, 2021
The Case for Universal Creative Income
Apr 21, 2021
a16z Podcast: Jesse Walden on the Creator Economy – NFTs and Beyond
Apr 3, 2021
Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy: Jesse Walden – A Primer on NFTs
Mar 23, 2021
The Pomp Podcast: Jesse Walden on the Ownership Economy
Mar 11, 2021
NFTs Make the Internet Ownable
Feb 15, 2021
Indie Hackers: The Passion Economy
Feb 8, 2021
We Studied 50+ Startups on TikTok and Here’s What We Found
Jan 27, 2021
The Creator Economy Needs a Middle Class
Dec 17, 2020
Leadership in the Ownership Economy: Scaling Decision Making while Minimizing Securities Risk
Dec 1, 2020
The Pomp Podcast: Li Jin on the Passion Economy
Oct 20, 2020
Bankless Podcast: Jesse Walden on the Ownership Economy
Oct 12, 2020
7 Indicators for DeFi Project Investment
Aug 16, 2020
Unbundling Work From Employment
Jul 29, 2020
The Ownership Economy
Jul 14, 2020
How Does DeFi Cross the Chasm?
Jun 17, 2020
Unchained Podcast: Jesse Walden on How to Decentralize a Crypto Project Without Harming Security
Jun 2, 2020
Four Implications of Disruption Theory for the Passion Economy (Part 2)
May 22, 2020
How the Passion Economy Will Disrupt Media, Education, and Countless Other Industries (Part 1)
May 14, 2020
a16z Podcast: Li Jin on How the Passion Economy Is Redefining Work
Apr 17, 2020
Crypto’s Business Model Is Familiar. What Isn’t Is Who Benefits
Apr 10, 2020
Narrative Economics
Apr 7, 2020
1,000 True Fans? Try 100
Feb 6, 2020
Progressive Decentralization: A Playbook for Building Crypto Applications
Jan 18, 2020
16 Key Metrics for the Passion Economy
Jan 8, 2020
Paid Groups and the Passion Economy
Oct 20, 2019
The Passion Economy and the Future of Work
Oct 8, 2019
Layers (Not Eras) of Blockchain Computing
Sep 3, 2019
8 Things to Consider When Building Managed Marketplace Companies
Aug 28, 2019
Incomplete Contracts (and Scaling Crypto)
Aug 4, 2019
Past, Present, Future: From Co-ops to Cryptonetworks
Mar 22, 2019
The Best Marketplaces Solve a Demand Need
Feb 25, 2019
Fake Your Way to Marketplace Success
Jan 19, 2019
4 Eras of Blockchain Computing: Degrees of Composability
Dec 12, 2018
What’s Next for Marketplace Startups?
Nov 27, 2018
5 Questions for Evaluating E-Commerce Viability
Oct 9, 2018
Why Crypto Community Building Matters
Sep 15, 2018
a16z Podcast: Jesse Walden on Crypto and the Evolution of Open Source
Aug 21, 2018
Crypto Community Building Playbook
Jul 19, 2018
What NFTs Mean for ETH
Apr 18, 2018
The Persistent Forker
Apr 11, 2018