the analogy doesn't really hold to coinbase though. Shovels are a utility for mining gold. That would correlate to GPUs and other computer hardware. In that regard perhaps the VCs should be investing in AMD or Nvidia.
I imagine if you are a VC investing in this space, hedging between hardware, currencies, and exchanges/merchant services would probably be smart. If the market cap of BTC drops, does the market value of e.g. Intel or Coinbase drop proportionally?