Jason Rosenthal, an operating partner at a16z Crypto, argued that controlling “money flows” can create durable competitive advantages and said crypto is the first modern technology built for that purpose.
According to ChainCatcher, Rosenthal wrote on X that startups risk missing opportunities if they do not design products and business models around money flows. He said stablecoins now allow money and value to move at “internet speed,” citing global settlement, 24/7 availability, and end-to-end programmability.
Rosenthal compared the concept to business models that benefit from transaction throughput rather than a single product, and said firms such as Visa and Jane Street are positioned within money flows. He added that money flows combined with network effects have historically formed one of the most enduring business structures.
He also said traditional financial services contain significant profit margins that could be compressed across areas including payments, custody, lending, foreign exchange, settlement, and market making. Rosenthal said crypto entrepreneurs have an opportunity to build programmable, instant, and global next-generation money-flow businesses.
Beyond finance, he suggested the same model could extend to sectors such as computing, GPU markets, AI training data, energy, robotics, space, and rare earth metals. He encouraged founders to assess whether their businesses sit within money flows and whether revenue scales as the value of product activity increases.
Joy
