For nearly a decade, Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm was one of venture capital’s biggest backers of blockchain. Now it is dropping the word from its name.

Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture firm known as a16z, said on Oct. 22 that its crypto fund will now be called a16z Frontier. The renamed unit will look beyond blockchain to artificial intelligence, robotics and other new technologies.

The firm says it isn’t leaving crypto behind. “We will continue to invest in crypto and related ventures,” managing partner Chris Dixon wrote in a post announcing the change.

He made the case that blockchain technology now runs largely in the background.

“The label matters less now,” he…