The bitcoin has run into turmoil recently, including a collapse of the once-dominant Mt. Gox Exchange. But that hasn't dented the enthusiasm of Marc Andreessen, co-founder and partner of venture-capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz.
"I'm completely unfazed and plan to invest more,"
he told The Wall Street Journal. Andreessen was a co-founder of Netscape Communications in the 1990s.
Andreessen Horowitz has invested about $50 million in the bitcoin sector, which is thought to be more than that committed by any other investor, the firm told The Journal.
Editor’s Note: 5 Shocking Reasons the Dow Will Hit 60,000
It has allocated $25 million to Coinbase, which makes digital wallets, and a smaller sum in Ripple, a payment system, Andreessen Horowitz told the paper.
And it plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars more during the next several years, people familiar with the firm told The Journal.
In the past year, the bitcoin has plunged below $100 and soared above $1,100. It was quoted at $569.53 Sunday on CoinDesk.
Andreessen said the bitcoin brings back early memories of the Internet. "I'm having déjà vu," he said. Bitcoin is "weird and scary and nerdy, and it's full of scams and frauds, just like the Internet was."
Yale economist Robert Shiller has a mixed take on bitcoin. "Bitcoin is a payment system, and it is a form of money,"
he told CBS News. "It has succeeded. It has value, and people are buying and selling with it."
But it doesn't have staying power, Shiller said. "I don't actually think that Bitcoin has a long future."
Editor’s Note: 5 Shocking Reasons the Dow Will Hit 60,000
© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.