I’m excited to formally welcome Chris Dixon to the OpenSea Board of Directors. Chris has been extremely influential in shaping my views on web3. I followed his writing closely when I first fell down the “crypto rabbithole,” and met him in 2021 when a16z first expressed interest in investing in OpenSea. Since then, we’ve spent a ton of time together and he has served as a consistent thought partner and advisor to us.

Anyone who has spent time with Chris knows he is a principled, rigorous, and intellectually honest thinker, and he consistently pushes us to zoom out and make sure we’re solving for the long term arc of the NFT space. Because Chris doesn’t join many boards, he can go extremely deep into the weeds, build continuous context on the business, and provide strategic and relevant recommendations. It’s been great transitioning him to the Board, because it’s allowed us to spend more regular time together going deep into our product roadmap and business strategy.

Chris is taking over the a16z board seat from Katie Haun as part of her departure from a16z to start Haun Ventures. Katie has been another invaluable source of wisdom for OpenSea over the years. And thanks to her long standing relationship with Chris, she was able to execute a smooth handoff and remains close to us in her capacity as an investor through Haun Ventures.

We’re grateful for all that Katie’s done for OpenSea over the years, and couldn’t be more excited to build for the future of the NFT ecosystem with Chris on our Board, and Katie by our side.