Farcaster has been acquired by the ecosystem's core client Neynar, and the two co-founders will gradually step back to focus on new projects.

On January 22, Farcaster founder Dan Romero announced on social media that Neynar is acquiring Farcaster. Over the next few weeks, the existing team will transfer the protocol contracts and code repositories, the Farcaster app, and all ownership of Clanker to Neynar. Neynar will be responsible for operating and maintaining everything moving forward. They are the most suitable candidates to take over the leadership of Farcaster, and they will soon share a new vision focused on builders. Dan Romero stated: “This was not an easy decision. Farcaster and the people building on it mean a lot to the founding team. We are very proud of what the team has built and everything the community has contributed with us. But after five years, it’s clear that Farcaster needs a new approach and new leadership to realize its full potential.” Some members of the Merkle team (Farcaster’s founding company), Varun Srinivasan (another co-founder), and Dan Romero himself will gradually step back from the daily operations of Farcaster and shift their focus to new projects. It is reported that Neynar is the most core third-party infrastructure and developer platform in the Farcaster ecosystem, and one of the earliest Farcaster clients. Its infrastructure has already supported most developer activities within the Farcaster ecosystem. BlockBeats previously reported that Farcaster announced in May 2024 that it had completed a $150 million funding round, the second-largest financing event in the crypto space that year. The round was led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto, and others. The list of top investors made Farcaster one of the hottest projects at the time, and this funding event was even considered a sign of the beginning of a boom in decentralized social media.