Farcaster to return $180M to investors following Neynar takeover

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.

Farcaster to return $180 million to investors

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.

The post followed the announcement that Neynar was acquiring Farcaster. Romero previously said that Neynar would assume responsibility for maintaining Farcaster’s protocol contracts, code repositories and consumer app, marking a leadership transition.

As part of the handover, Romero and several team members will step away from operations and move on to new projects.

Neynar has been closely tied to Farcaster’s ecosystem since its early days, operating as one of the first Farcaster clients and providing infrastructure that supports a large share of developers building on the protocol.

Aave hands over Lens stewardship to Mask Network

Beyond Farcaster, decentralized social protocol Lens Protocol also underwent a leadership transition this week.

The Aave team said it has handed over stewardship of Lens to Mask Network, allowing Aave to refocus on decentralized finance while remaining involved with Lens in a technical advisory capacity.

While decentralized social projects are shifting leadership structures, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin voiced his support for decentralized social media and urged the community to adopt open social platforms.

On Thursday, Buterin urged builders and users to spend more time in decentralized social ecosystems, saying the industry must move beyond centralized information warzones and into new forms of online interaction.

“If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools,” Buterin said.

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