‘Blatant Propaganda […] Bolstering the Venture Capitalist’s Bottom Line’ ⇥ newsletter.mollywhite.net

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz released a “State of Crypto Report” for 2023:

Our 2023 report aims to address the imbalance between the noise of fleeting price movements – and the data that tracks the signals that matter, including the durable progress of web3 technology. Overall, the report reflects a healthier industry than market prices may indicate, and a steady cycle of development, product launches, and ongoing innovation.

Molly White expertly dismantled it:

If there is one thing that I want you to take away from this article, it’s that venture capital firms and other heavily invested players in the crypto space should not be trusted to give us the facts on the industry they desperately need to promote. They will produce superficially objective-looking reports full of numbers and charts, but a critical reading shows just how blatantly they are manipulating numbers to arrive at the conclusions that fit their narratives. There is no consequence to Andreessen Horowitz for doing it, and certainly if someone tried to hold them accountable for their blatant twisting of the facts, they would just point to their cover-your-ass disclosures slide in which they disclaim everything in the report.

It is almost surprising A16Z stopped publishing Future, its crypto-Pravda, last year, just as the market settled into what it calls a “steady cycle”.