You’ve probably seen the memes of the “pivot from Web3 to A.I.,” jesting that venture capital investors have ditched the old hot new thing, crypto, for the new hot new thing, artificial intelligence. For some crypto-focused VCs, like Paradigm, the allure of A.I.—and a potential shift in their interests—has sparked some backlash.

The firm, started by Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang, recently erased all mention of crypto or Web3 from its website homepage—branding previously touted front and center—as crypto news site The Block spotted in late May. The report caught the attention of my colleague Leo Schwartz and me, and we decided to dig a bit deeper. We discovered that it wasn’t just Twitter users who were raising eyebrows over the changes. READ MORE