Katie Haun

Technology is a tool whose architecture can expose crime2015

Silk Road enabled criminal commerce, yet its public ledger helped trace theft by investigators themselves. Haun uses this duality to reject both technological innocence and blanket criminalization.

For founders: Show how architecture deters, detects and remedies abuse rather than claiming technology is neutral enough to need no controls.

Regulation should separate bad actors from legitimate builders2015

Her Digital Currency Coordinator comments framed enforcement and industry as sharing an interest in consumer safety and clear rules; Ripple remediation illustrated a negotiated rather than maximalist criminal outcome.

For founders: Build AML and customer protection early and be prepared to demonstrate remediation rather than treating ambiguity as permission.

Hide crypto complexity behind tangible benefit2021

Eco and Valora theses prioritize saving, spending, payments and access rather than teaching every user protocol mechanics.

For founders: Lead with a familiar job-to-be-done, simple experience and measurable user gain; keep keys, fees and compliance complexity under control.

Open networks should improve participant economics2022

The launch thesis argues open platforms can provide ownership, portability, creator economics, transparency and trust superior to walled gardens. Concentrated tokens and VC control can undermine that claim.

For founders: Specify rights, allocations, portability, governance and take rates; prove openness survives insider influence.

Be a venture contributor, not only a capital provider2022

Haun Ventures promises active policy, communication, governance and community participation alongside capital. Such participation increases both founder support and investor conflict responsibilities.

For founders: Ask for concrete operating contribution and establish governance, disclosure and recusal boundaries in advance.

Open-source code is not automatically sanctionable property2022

Her Tornado Cash position argues statutory sanctions authority over foreign property cannot simply be extended to immutable code, while acknowledging incomplete facts about the application.

For founders: Separate protocol code, operators and illicit users legally and technically; include compliance pathways without destroying privacy for lawful users.

Stablecoins are always-on payment rails2024

BVNK and Fund II frame stablecoins as major global settlement infrastructure for businesses, neobanks and incumbents rather than merely trading instruments.

For founders: Demonstrate speed, cost, treasury, liquidity, licensing, compliance and integration advantages against existing rails.

Onchain assets become programmable global primitives2026

Fund II extends tokenization from stablecoins to securities, commodities, derivatives and event-risk markets. Legal enforceability, oracle integrity, liquidity and investor protection constrain the thesis.

For founders: Explain issuance rights, jurisdiction, custody, oracle and redemption mechanics and why global programmability creates durable demand.

Computers as customers need native financial rails2026

Haun expects agents to transact continuously across borders, requiring new identity, fraud, credit, insurance, privacy, provenance and reputation layers. This is a forward-looking thesis, not established inevitability.

For founders: Show a real autonomous workflow, authorization boundaries, liability, human override, fraud controls and unit economics beyond an AI-crypto label.

Operate fearlessly without denying downside2026

Her founder framing prizes work in unsettled technology and regulation, while portfolio experience shows security, valuation and policy risks can be severe.

For founders: Pair ambition with explicit downside cases, incident plans, capital discipline and a compliant fallback path.