In 2018, when Bitcoin traded at around $4,000 and much of the public remained skeptical about cryptocurrencies, former federal prosecutor Katie Haun found herself debating digital assets in Mexico City opposite Paul Krugman, the Nobel Laureate economist who dismissed crypto as effectively worthless. While Krugman highlighted Bitcoin’s volatile prices, Haun refocused the conversation onto stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to currencies like the U.S. dollar.
Haun argued passionately that stablecoins offered a promising hedge against the unpredictability of cryptocurrencies, harnessing blockchain technology without the steep fluctuations of Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the time, Krugman waved off her assertions. Yet, today, stablecoins represent approximately $250 billion in total value and have grown large enough that their transaction volumes outpaced Visa last year.
Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, designed as speculative vehicles whose value can fluctuate dramatically, stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC are pegged to a stable asset—typically the U.S. dollar—designed to maintain a constant value of $1 each. They promise efficient, low-cost global transfers for just a fraction of traditional banking fees and offer individuals in economically unstable countries reliable access to stable, dollar-based value.
Haun herself came to crypto from a unique background. As a former federal prosecutor, she spent over a decade investigating financial crimes, including establishing the U.S. government’s first cryptocurrency task force, probing the Mt. Gox exchange hack, and uncovering corruption among law enforcement involved in the Silk Road investigations. When she joined the influential venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Haun became their first female general partner, co-leading the firm’s crypto funds. In 2022, she set out on her own, launching Haun Ventures with over $1.5 billion under management specifically focused on digital assets and blockchain-oriented startups.
Her journey from Andreessen wasn’t without complexity. There had been few, if any, jointly announced deals between her new fund and Andreessen Horowitz since 2022, shortly after she departed to form her venture firm. At a recent TechCrunch StrictlyVC event, Haun calmly addressed this, indicating that while communication still occurred between herself and her former firm, there was no formal arrangement dictating cooperation or competition.
Under her leadership, Haun Ventures has invested actively in stablecoin companies and infrastructure enterprises. Haun believes that tokenized digital dollars will significantly reshape global finance, offering both efficiency and accessibility. Corporations such as Amazon and Walmart, and even tech giants like Uber, Apple, and Airbnb, are exploring the stablecoin direction. For these industry giants, stablecoins represent potential billions in savings on payment processing fees by avoiding traditional banking structures.
However, compact adoption has spurred considerable criticism—fears that large corporations’ potential to issue their own currencies could unsettle global monetary policy and undermine banking regulations. Last week’s Senate approval of the GENIUS Act, which would set federal standards for stablecoin regulation, sparked fresh debates over transparency, corruption concerns, and regulatory accountability. Senator Elizabeth Warren strongly opposes the legislation, particularly wary after former President Donald Trump’s family introduced their own stablecoin, drawing scrutiny about political influence and conflicts of interest.
Haun responded forcefully, characterizing concerns of corruption as ironic, especially given Warren and other critics’ reluctance to support earlier, clearer regulatory frameworks. According to Haun, legislative clarity is critical in distinguishing legitimate, backed stablecoins—which maintain strict reserves in U.S. Treasury securities—from riskier offerings such as the algorithmically-backed TerraUSD, whose collapse famously erased over $60 billion in value.
While supportive of most provisions in the GENIUS Act, Haun challenged the blanket prohibition of yield-bearing stablecoins. She voiced concern that denying U.S. consumers interest on stablecoin deposits unfairly enriched stablecoin issuers like Circle or Coinbase. Customers, she insisted, should be able to earn yield on their stablecoin reserves just as they would with a savings account.
In response to Warren’s broader money laundering apprehensions, Haun argued that cryptocurrency is highly traceable, vastly more transparent for law enforcement than physical cash. Citing U.S. Treasury statistics, she underscored that traditional banking and wire services remain, overwhelmingly, criminal enterprises’ tools of choice for illicit money flows.
Looking to the future, Haun sees stablecoins as a precursor to a much larger phenomenon: widespread asset tokenization. Notably, firms like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have already begun tokenizing money market funds. She envisions a time when assets—including equities, real estate, and bonds—trade 24 hours a day globally, digitally represented in fractions accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
“It’s like Netflix democratizing entertainment,” Haun explained. Previously high entry barriers for traditional financial assets could vanish, allowing ordinary investors to own fractions of any valuable assets, at any hour, without prohibitive minimums or expensive fees.
Reflecting on her 2018 debate opposite Krugman, Haun’s insistence on stablecoins’ significance now seems prescient. Questions remain around rapid technology adoption and regulatory frameworks’ ability to adapt, but Haun remains calm and quietly optimistic, convinced that digital money’s steady march is both inevitable and just beginning.
