Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb: The 3 Top Crypto Investors in My Eyes

Original Author: Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

Original Compilation: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

LPs sometimes ask me who I think is the best venture capitalist in the cryptocurrency space.

I think about this question often.

Ever since I started doing crypto venture capital, I've wanted to be the best. I'm deeply driven by competition, and investing is pure competition. In the end, only one person wins the deal, and only one person predicts the cycle's winners.

But when you look closely and analyze, you'll find three people who have proven themselves to be the GOATs (Greatest of All Time) in crypto venture capital.

This might sound a bit off-topic (it is), and probably unappealing to non-crypto investors. But I am one. So, this article is for everyone who has made investing in crypto their life's work.

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 $75 billion company—a legendary story. It's almost unheard of for a venture capitalist to create such immense value for a portfolio company.

Dan Robinson is the Mike Speiser of crypto.

Time and again, Dan has been involved in the development of several landmark companies in crypto. He was there from the beginning of Uniswap and is a co-author and foundational figure behind Uniswap V3, which became the cornerstone of on-chain spot trading. He was also an early key contributor to Flashbots, which gave rise to the modern MEV auction. Furthermore, he was an early research contributor to Plasma (the precursor to Rollups) and consequently led Optimism's seed round.

Dan is a true polymath. He breaks the mold of the traditional VC. He started as a securities lawyer, taught himself to become a protocol architect and mathematician, and is now a self-taught investor. Perhaps the smartest investment Matt Huang ever made was hiring Dan. We often lose deals to Paradigm, and the reason is often people saying: Yeah, you guys are great, but sorry, I have to work with Dan.

The most formidable investors are those who do more than just invest. Dan sees where the entire industry is going and has repeatedly rolled up his sleeves to help make it happen. This makes him one of the greatest investors of all time and earns him a place on crypto's Mount Rushmore.

Second Place: Chris Dixon (Partner at a16z)

Chris Dixon is an OG in crypto. He saw crypto's potential earlier than anyone else. Before Chris, crypto venture capital was a niche.

He was the first mainstream VC to publicly dive into crypto and stake his career on it. He was the first to bring the language of venture capital to crypto and network investing. He was also the first to introduce these concepts to Silicon Valley and its institutional LP circles. Many of the concepts we discuss internally every day are borrowed directly from Chris. It's no exaggeration to say I'm walking on the track Chris originally laid for himself.

I believe Chris Dixon facilitated two of the most important deals. The first is, of course, Coinbase. In 2013, when the crypto industry was in its infancy and everything was uncertain, Chris led Coinbase's Series B. This deal perfectly embodies Dixonism—"what the smartest people do on the weekend, everyone else will do in ten years." He made this deal with immense foresight and then doubled down, going all-in on the entire industry. It was much harder to do what we're doing now when Chris was first doing these things.

The second deal is Uniswap. Almost everyone who looked at Uniswap's Series A passed on it (the final valuation was only $100 million—Uniswap was tiny then). At the time, we were intensely debating whether AMMs were capital efficient enough, whether they faced too much adverse selection, and whether they were too easy to fork. Paradigm passed (even though they led the seed round), we passed, and as far as I know, no one else on the a16z investment committee wanted to do the deal either.

But Chris? Reportedly, Chris said: "A smart contract that can buy and sell anything? Sounds cool. Who knows what will happen—let's try it." He was right. It was cool. All sorts of unexpected things would happen because of permissionless AMMs. Passing on that Series A taught me a profound lesson.

I disagree with a16z on many things. But everyone in this industry owes Chris a sincere debt of gratitude. He single-handedly propelled the crypto industry to its current cultural status more effectively than any other venture capitalist. He has dedicated his life to promoting and legitimizing crypto in Washington D.C., ultimately winning cultural acceptance as a positive frontier technology. Much of the language we use about crypto today comes directly from Chris.

Without Chris's early and forceful advocacy, crypto venture capital wouldn't be where it is today. For that, we are sincerely grateful.

And this leads to the number one venture capitalist of all time...

First Place: Kyle Samani (Co-founder, Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital)

Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.

I often criticize Kyle. He annoys a lot of people—including me. Always has.

But investing is like a sport. In the end, you either score points, or you don't.

And Kyle has scored more points than anyone. The massive profit from his seed investment in Solana, and the effort he put into that deal, will one day be written into a book that I will read while frowning the entire time.

You see, the best investors are contrarians. And Kyle is a true contrarian. Being a contrarian doesn't mean you write a hot take that gets a bunch of people saying "wow, that's clever." If everyone wants to retweet you, by definition, you're not a contrarian. You know you're a true contrarian when you annoy people. When people think you're a fool. When they think you're burning money.

Kyle is one of the few true contrarians in crypto. I disagree with almost everything he says. But his initial investment, and his steadfast conviction in holding Solana through the trough after the FTX collapse, make him unquestionably the greatest venture capitalist in crypto history.

We often say venture capital follows a power law. Kyle and his legendary Solana investment are the perfect embodiment of that. Sometimes, it really does take just one deal.

And that's why Kyle is the GOAT crypto VC.

So, those are my top three.

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LPs sometimes ask me who should be ahead of whom on this list.

Despite my high self-regard—and I am indeed very arrogant—I don't think I'm in the top three. I'm definitely in the top ten, maybe even the top five, but I'm certainly not better than any of these three. I hope one day, before my career is over, I can surpass them. If we compare by seasons, I've definitely had seasons where I outperformed each of them.

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

Praising my competitors doesn't help Dragonfly. But there's a deeper meaning to the game. You see, being an investor in this industry is incredibly tough—most of the peers I started with didn't make it. Crypto is brutally competitive.

Even though I compete with them every day, I have immense respect for them. I've watched them grow over nearly a decade of ups and downs. We've been through all of crypto's twists and turns together, supporting founders, supporting the industry, and helping it stand alongside any other technology. As the year ends, I felt it necessary to pay tribute to them, because VCs in this space rarely get praised.

Whether they realize it or not, each of them has done a lot for me. I've learned so much from each of them. I genuinely hope they are proud of what they've achieved.

Dan Robinson sees the path.

Chris Dixon sees it first.

And Kyle Samani sees it through.

Hats off to you all. Here's to fiercer competition in the new year.