Diogo Mónica

I’m ecstatic to announce that Diogo Mónica, one of the most exceptional founders I know, is joining us as a General Partner. In addition to co-founding and building Anchorage Digital into the success story it is today, Diogo possesses a wealth of technical experience from leading the platform security teams at Block (formerly Square), where he engineered their first encrypted card reader, and Docker, where he developed the company’s security protocols.

Diogo adds an entirely new flank of experiences and capabilities to what Haun Ventures can offer builders, and his arrival represents an important step for us as we construct an elite venture franchise investing at the frontier of crypto. Diogo will be transitioning to Executive Chairman of the Board of Anchorage Digital.

I first met Diogo seven years ago in San Francisco as he and Nathan McCauley were starting Anchorage Digital. Even then, it stood out that he had that rare combination of deep technical expertise, exceptional communication skills, and fierce competitive spirit—all paired with a magnetic personality (not to mention a PhD in computer science with a speciality in network security and distributed systems). We kept in contact afterwards in a variety of contexts: collaboratively, when I joined Andreessen Horowitz, where Anchorage Digital was a portfolio company; and competitively, in my role on the board of Coinbase. These connection points over time only deepened my admiration for Diogo. When I was preparing to launch my own firm and needed strategic advice, he was one of the first people I called.

I’m hardly alone in my admiration. To say Diogo is a leader within our industry is an understatement: he’s among a pioneering set of founders early to crypto that revolutionized digital asset custody to create a new standard for institutional participation in crypto. Today, Anchorage Digital is the only federally chartered crypto-native bank in the US, with assets under custody in excess of $50 billion. As both a leader and sought-after founder, Diogo has supported dozens of protocols through launch. His foresight and understanding of security infrastructure have been instrumental in shaping today's landscape and advancing broader adoption of crypto.

Diogo brings personal experience building, leading, and growing a multi-billion-dollar company. In this way, he’s a perfect complement to our existing team, which includes early operators from companies like Coinbase, Twitter, and GitHub. We know that founders crave connection with peers who have seen and solved the same challenges—be it taking a product from zero to one, hiring and scaling teams, securing multiple funding rounds, and everything in between. It’s clear why he’s been such a desirable angel investor, backing over 100 startups across sectors from crypto to security to AI to consumer.

I knew Diogo would be a perfect fit at Haun because, like us, he’s a builder. I’ve seen firsthand how he is at his best in fast-moving environments where he can roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. His warmth and wit (he’s extremely funny, as I’ve come to learn after several stints traveling the globe together for business) are what make him a wonderful teammate and a wonderful human. And we expect his boundless energy, curious mind, and fiercely competitive nature will make him an incredible asset to us and to our founders. I couldn’t be happier he’s decided to dive in and build alongside us.

Welcome, Diogo!