Farcaster, Blockchain-Based Social Media Startup, Raises $150M, Led by Paradigm
Dan Romero's Farcaster made waves earlier this year with the introduction of "Frames," a feature allowing apps to run within posts, so users don't have to click off to another site. Other investors in the latest fundraising round include a16z and Haun.
Updated May 21, 2024, 4:46 p.m. Published May 21, 2024, 4:44 p.m.
Farcaster, a blockchain-based social-media project, has secured $150 million in a fundraising round led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z, Haun, USV, Variant and Standard Crypto, according to a post by founder Dan Romero.
"This will support our work on Farcaster for many years to come," Romero wrote Tuesday in an update. He added that the project was hiring staff-level engineers.
Farcaster is built atop the Ethereum blockchain as well as OP Mainnet in the Optimism layer-2 ecosystem, according to the project's documentation.
The project went "permissionless" in October and has since seen "350,000 paid sign-ups and a 50x increase in network activity," Romero wrote in Tuesday's post. "There are hundreds of developers building on the protocol and a growing number of apps and frames for people to use."
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is signed up as a user of Farcaster's Warpcast app, and has made regular posts.
Romero famously was the former college roommate at Duke University of Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam.
Farcaster turned heads with the Jan. 26 release of a new "Frames" feature, which allows apps to run within posts, so users don't have to click off to another site.
Bradley Keoun
Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.
