Crypto: Farcaster To Return $180m To Investors Following Neynar Takeover

Decentralized social network Farcaster remains operational after its acquisition by Neynar and confirmed plans to return $180 million in capital to investors.

Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero moved to quell speculation about the project’s future, saying the protocol is not shutting down following its acquisition by infrastructure provider Neynar.

Farcaster is a decentralized social networking protocol that allows developers to build interoperable social apps where users own their identities, social graphs and connections onchain rather than being locked into a single platform.

In a post addressing the community, Romero said Farcaster remains operational and continues to see meaningful usage, citing its 250,000 active monthly users in December and more than 100,000 funded wallets.

He said Neynar, a venture-backed startup that has long built infrastructure on Farcaster, plans to steer the project in a more developer-focused direction.

In July 2022, Merkle Manufactory, the company behind Farcaster’s development, raised $30 million from venture capital firm a16z crypto. In March 2024, it had another funding round led by Paradigm, which reportedly pushed the company's valuation past $1 billion.

Romero said the total capital raised by Merkle over its lifetime amounts to $180 million. In a post, he said the company will return the funds to investors. “As for Merkle, we’re planning to return the full $180 million raised back to investors,” he wrote.

He added that the decision follows five years of development efforts and an attempt to act as responsible stewards of investor capital.

Cointelegraph reached out to Merkle Manufactory for more information, but received no response before publication.

The post drew a response from Farcaster investor Balaji Srinivasan, who confirmed that investor funds were being returned. He also praised the team’s work on decentralized social infrastructure.

Source: CoinTelegraph