Nick Tomaino

Tomaino worked at Coinbase from 2013 to 2016, where he led business development.⁠[1][2]

On January 21, 2018, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry released the a16z Podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Mental Models for Understanding Crypto Tokens,” in which Chris DixonChris DixonChris Dixon is a programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, and the founder and managing partner of a16z crypto. He co-founded SiteAdvisor and Hunch, helped create Founder Collective, and later joined Andreessen Horowitz, investing in technology companies such as Coinbase. He is also the author of Read Write Own and has long written about blockchains, network ownership, the open internet, and the combination of AI and crypto.Open the full entry, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, spoke with Tomaino. The episode page introduced Tomaino as founder of the early-stage crypto fund 1confirmation, editor of The Control and an investor in Basecoin, Cosmos, Ethereum and MakerDAO.⁠[2]

The episode covered mental models for understanding tokens and what may give them long-term value, the role of stablecoins, and scaling, including on-chain and off-chain protocols and forks; it was part of a series whose other episodes covered investing in protocols, practical applications and why tokens matter. The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019, as “a16z Podcast | Mental Models for Understanding Crypto Tokens.”⁠[2][3]

On September 25, 2019, 1confirmation announced a $45 million second fund. Tomaino declined to name its investors, saying only that they included many of his initial backers, and said the fund would focus on companies building infrastructure for the crypto industry to scale.⁠[4]

Making the case for crypto savings at the time, he said: “Compare negative interest rates in Germany to the 7.5% yield you can get on cryptocurrencies like DAI.”⁠[4]

On May 25, 2021, 1confirmation announced the close of a new $125 million fund. In his announcement post Tomaino said the firm had more than $800 million in assets under management; its portfolio included Coinbase, SuperRare and dYdX, and it held cryptocurrencies including DOT, ETHEthereumEthereum is an open, general-purpose smart contract blockchain that launched in 2015, and its native asset is ether (ETH). The project was proposed by Vitalik Buterin and advanced jointly by eight co-founders; the network now uses proof of stake and centers on the EVM, the account model, a rollup scaling roadmap, and the open EIP process.Open the full entry and BTCBitcoinBitcoin (common symbol BTC) is an open peer-to-peer electronic cash protocol, network, and native digital asset. Full nodes independently verify transactions and blocks according to the consensus rules; transactions are recorded as UTXOs, and blocks are organized into a public ledger through proof of work. Bitcoin is not issued or managed by any single institution, but using, holding in custody, and trading it still involve key, privacy, market, and legal risks.Open the full entry.⁠[1]

Tomaino’s 1confirmation was one of the first crypto investment funds. Its first fund raised $26 million from investors including Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry head Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry, Marc AndreessenMarc AndreessenMarc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While in college he helped develop the graphical web browser Mosaic, then co-founded Netscape and Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), and has long served as a director of Meta; he has also published essays such as “Why Software Is Eating the World.”Open the full entry and Mark CubanMark CubanMark Cuban is an American entrepreneur and investor whose early work in computer systems and internet audio and video expanded into sports, film, venture investment and pharmaceuticals. He was the Dallas Mavericks’ controlling owner and a longstanding investor on Shark Tank, and co-founded Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company.Open the full entry.⁠[4][1]

1confirmation: Official website: https://www.1confirmation.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]