A little more than a year after opening, Andreessen Horowitz will close its UK office to concentrate on its home market under US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto policies.
The venture capital firm, one of crypto’s largest investors, has “chosen to focus on the US given the new administration’s strong policy momentum and will therefore be closing our UK office,” according to a Friday post on X by Anthony Albanese, chief operating officer of the firm’s $7.6 billion crypto unit and head of its London operations. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the post.
London was Andreessen Horowitz’s first international office when it was announced in 2023, expanding the firm’s presence beyond its Menlo Park, California, base. The office was formerly headed by Sriram Krishnan, one of the firm’s general partners. Krishnan left the firm last year and announced he would serve as a senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Andreessen’s UK expansion had been seen as a big win for the government of former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and its plans to make the country a global crypto hub. A general election last summer saw a new Labour government take power, one that was less motivated to push ahead with regulating the crypto sector.
Andreessen’s plan to pull back from its UK crypto investments was first reported by the Financial Times.
“This doesn’t change our confidence in the UK’s growing role in crypto and blockchain,” said Albanese. “We also remain ready to help the UK with its ongoing crypto efforts.”