Degen, a blockchain-based social platform developed by the Farcaster community, has experienced a 17% increase following the announcement of a successful $150 million funding round. This Series A round saw contributions from leading venture firms including Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz, Haun, USV, Variant, and Standard Crypto. According to Farcaster’s founder Dan Romero, the newly acquired funds will enable the platform to sustain and expand its operations for several years.
What Does This Mean for Farcaster?
Romero, a former Coinbase executive, initially hinted at the funding round in March via Warpcast, without revealing specific details. Bloomberg had reported that this round would elevate Merkle Manufactory, the company behind Farcaster, to a valuation of $1 billion. The successful completion of the funding round underscores the growing confidence in Farcaster’s potential within the blockchain social network arena.
Jesse Walden, co-founder and general partner of Variant Fund, remarked that Farcaster is a promising and rapidly expanding protocol. Romero added that the financial boost would be instrumental in attracting a larger user base and enhancing the network’s functionalities.
How Will the Funds Be Utilized?
Since October, Farcaster has achieved significant milestones, including 350,000 paid registrations and a dramatic 50-fold increase in network activity. Romero indicated that the platform’s immediate focus would be on increasing daily active users and integrating new developer primitives such as channels and direct messaging.
Key Takeaways
- The $150 million funding will sustain Farcaster’s development for the foreseeable future.
- Farcaster’s user base and network activity have surged significantly since October.
- New features like channels and direct messaging are in the pipeline to enhance user engagement.
- DEGEN, Farcaster’s unofficial token, saw a 17% increase post-announcement.
In January, Jacek Trocinski launched DEGEN as a memecoin project, distributing it through airdrop events to users who created engaging content. The token has since gained momentum, leading to the creation of DEGEN Chain, a memecoin-focused Layer-3 blockchain network. DEGEN serves as the native transaction fee token on Base, and this development has already attracted considerable investor interest and a growing user base.