Construct it and they’ll come—or so goes the previous saying. In actuality, in case you construct a blockchain-based social media community, then nearly nobody will come. The crypto world received one other reminder of this final week when Farcaster, which raised a $150 Sequence A spherical in 2024, abruptly referred to as it quits.
When you’re unfamiliar, Farcaster was co-founded by early Coinbase worker Dan Romero and let customers share numerous content material through a Twitter-like timeline. The undertaking had the lofty aim of breaking the info monopolies of platforms like Fb by providing a decentralized various—one the place customers saved management of their knowledge and identification.
Regardless of a $1 billion valuation and a few influential backers, Farcaster by no means constructed a significant viewers past a military of bots and a small clique of VC cheerleaders. Ultimately, the founders acknowledged the plain (that nobody used Farcaster) and threw within the towel, however with a face-saving announcement that that they had organized a “sale” of the protocol to a 3rd social gathering. To his credit score, Romero additionally introduced he would return the $180 million he had raised to Farcaster’s traders.
So what occurred? Some on X have pointed to the administration crew as the first cause for Farcaster’s failure, a declare that will or is probably not justified. What is clear is that there was little urge for food available in the market for a crypto social community. That is obvious from the failure of earlier efforts, together with the scammy BitClout community, and the latest determination by Coinbase’s Base to deal with monetary purposes over social ones.
All of this displays how folks might love the thought of utilizing a blockchain for knowledge sovereignty however, in actuality, they’ll search out their social media repair on X or TikTok or Reddit. That’s as a result of these platforms are buzzing with thousands and thousands of customers whereas offering an interface that’s far sleeker than what a crypto startup can conjure up.
There might also be an even bigger drawback for these attempting to construct social and different purposes on blockchain. Particularly, the expertise might merely not be minimize out to do that—and that crypto ought to stick with what it’s all the time been good at, which is finance.
Over 17 years or so, crypto has provide you with three killer apps which have discovered huge product market match: Bitcoin, stablecoins, and DeFi. All three are squarely within the realm of finance. In the meantime, the thought of utilizing blockchain to rework different industries like media or provide chains appears as far-off as ever—although there may be renewed buzz about utilizing decentralized expertise to develop privateness.
As for Farcaster itself, it could stand because the excessive water mark for an earlier period of crypto that was outlined by a preferred e book about knowledge possession referred to as Learn Write Personal. As one observer famous on X: “With Farcaster losing its founders, Chris Dixon’s Read Write Own era is over. Crypto is for Internet Capital Markets. Period.”
DECENTRALIZED NEWS
BitGo turned the primary crypto IPO of 2026 with the longtime custody and infrastructure agency having fun with a podcast pop on its first day earlier than sliding beneath its itemizing worth by finish of week. (Fortune)
An 8-figure sponsorship deal has created the MoonPay X Video games, giving a brand new identify to the long-running excessive sports activities competitors, and a brand new format that can present extra pay to athletes below a team-based system. (Decrypt)
The destiny of the Genius Act, which would offer regulatory construction for crypto, stays unsure amid a squabble over guidelines for stablecoin yields. The invoice is stalled in Senate sub-committees, however one insider thinks it has momentum. (Fortune)
Binance is organising store in Greece, the place it filed for a pan-European MiCA license and arrange a holding firm. The license will develop into necessary for all crypto corporations within the EU as of July 1. (Fortune)
Crypto online game tie-ups have largely proved a flop, however a startup referred to as ZBD with ties to a Bitcoin OG believes it’s discovered a mannequin. It raised $40 million from Blockstream Capital to deal with crypto-based funds for gameplay. (Fortune)
MAIN CHARACTER OF THE WEEK
Changpeng Zhao, cofounder of Binance, at Davos.
Krisztian Bocsi—Bloomberg/Getty Pictures
Even at a Davos gathering heavy on crypto content material, CZ stood out for a televised interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin the place he described in intimate element the strip search course of throughout his jail keep.
MEME O’ THE MOMENT
@RampCapitalLLC
In a remaining signal the metaverse period is completed for good, Mark Zuckerberg turned the lights off on the stays of a undertaking that after appeared so necessary that he renamed his firm for it.
