Dan Romero built a unicorn.
In five years, he and Varun Srinivasan took Farcaster from idea to $1 billion valuation. They proved decentralized social media actually works. They shipped Frames, Snapchain, and an ecosystem that 350,000+ people paid to join.
That's an incredible achievement. And now they're handing the keys to the perfect team.
Neynar is acquiring Farcaster. All of it. The protocol, the app, and Clanker. And for everyone building on Farcaster, this is fantastic news.
Here's why this acquisition matters and what it means for your projects.
Farcaster Founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan Built a $1B Web3 Social Protocol
Before we look forward, let's celebrate what happened.
Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan are former Coinbase executives who left cushy jobs to build something new. In 2020, they started Merkle Manufactory with one crazy idea: social media that no one controls.
The results speak for themselves:
- $30 million from a16z crypto in 2022
- $150 million from Paradigm in May 2024
- $180 million total raised from top-tier investors
- 400% DAU spike when Frames launched in January 2024
- Snapchain upgrade delivering 10,000+ transactions per second
- 1.4 million registered users building the decentralized social graph
Dan and Varun did what most said was impossible. They built a protocol where users own their identity, their content, and their relationships. No algorithm controlling what you see. No platform holding your data hostage.
