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• Andreessen Horowitz has a $ 2.2 billion fund to use for cryptocurrency investments.
• It leveraged two engineers from Novi’s portfolio as CTO and CISO of a16z Crypto.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a founding member of the organization behind Facebook’s Diem crypto project, makes sure that something good comes from an investment that has so far not paid off.

Two senior engineers for Facebook’s Novi wallet, which will be used to hold a dollar stablecoin issued by the Diem Association created by Facebook, are taking on senior roles at a16z Crypto, according to a blog post from the firm today.

Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Nassim Eddequiouaq, who transitioned from roles at Anchorage’s cryptocurrency custodian two years ago to begin work on Facebook’s portfolio, have been named the company’s chief technology officer and chief information security officer, respectively.

two veteran engineers lived long enough for them to change Facebook’s crypto ambitions, along with the names of their projects.

Facebook announced Libra in 2019. Originally, its intention was to create a digital asset whose value was tied to a basket of the world’s major currencies. Instead of a stable currency maintaining a 1: 1 parity with the US dollar or other currency, Libra would theoretically enjoy a stable price, as it becomes its own de facto global currency, which will be kept in the Calibra wallet. Leading the project was the Libra Association, which included Coinbase and Andreessen along with major credit card companies and non-governmental organizations.

Also Read Recent Developments and Price Updates

All of this has changed. Libra became Diem and Calibra changed its three syllables to become Novi, but the rebranding did not take away from the project’s confusion. association lost a large number of members, including eBay, Mastercard, Stripe and Visa on the same day, after US lawmakers warned of regulatory implications. newly formed Diem Association downgraded ambitions for this year’s asset to a simple US-based stablecoin when the founders and executives left the project.

Now, Faizullabhoy and Eddequiouaq are joining co-founder Kevin Weil, chief strategy officer Morgan Beller and others to exit, although co-founder David Marcus said in August that the portfolio “is ready to go.”

He’s not here yet, but a16z has a lot of work to do to keep the duo busy. Its crypto fund, the company’s third-largest, raised $ 2.2 billion this summer, after first bets on decentralized exchange Uniswap and decentralized lender Compound, paid dividends. Last week, Andreessen led the $ 152 million Series B Funding Round for the popular Ethereum NFT Axie Infinity game.

According to Anthony Albanese, COO of a16z Crypto, Faizullabhoy and Eddequiouaq will be responsible for helping companies within the company’s portfolios to “enforce strict security measures and technical guidelines.”

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