Farcaster founder Dan Romero has stated that his decentralized social media agency “isn’t shutting down” after rumors of its closure circulated following Neynar’s acquisition of the platform.
Romero dispelled the rumors yesterday in a publish on X which additionally clarified that Merkle Manufactory, a contributor to the Farcaster protocol, will return the $180 million it raised from traders throughout its Sequence A funding spherical.
He stated, “The acquirer, Neynar, is a venture-backed startup and plans to shift Farcaster in a more developer-focused direction.”
Given some rumors, needed to publish just a few clarifications:
Farcaster will not be shutting down. The protocol works and can proceed to work. There have been 250,000 MAU in December and over 100,000 funded wallets. The acquirer, Neynar, is a venture-backed startup and plans to shift…
— Dan Romero (@dwr) January 22, 2026
It had managed to safe funding from funding corporations Paradigm, a16z Crypto, and Customary Crypto, to construct a decentralized social media platform that may give customers extra management over their information and profiles.
Some known as the Farcaster acquisition a $150M theft
There was some backlash to the acquisition from Mirza Uddin, head of enterprise at Injective protocol, who posted, “How to Steal $150 Million and Get Away with It.”
He claimed that Romero basically “scammed” traders out of a whole bunch of tens of millions to money out, purchase luxurious mansions, and promote the corporate for “effectively $0 a few years later.”
Nevertheless, this criticism was described as “stupid” by crypto journalist Laura Shin, who congratulated Romero for what he and his workforce had achieved.
Shin stated that it’s “nobody’s business” the place Romero received the cash to purchase a home from, including that “any sane person would have figured out it was likely from the Coinbase IPO.”
A number of crypto business proponents additionally expressed their help for Romero’s choice, with some Coinbase execs telling him to “ignore the haters.”
Extraordinarily proud to have been an investor. The trolls on this have been so insanely off-base :-/
Such a uncommon & fairly honorable transfer to have the ability to return all invested capital
Excited for what’s subsequent for you & for the Farcaster ecosystem to proceed to develop underneath new possession!
— Bobby Goodlatte (@rsg) January 23, 2026
CEO Bobby Goodlatter joined others in congratulating Romero.
Romero stated the acquisition “wasn’t an easy decision.” He claimed that he was happy with what his workforce and the neighborhood had been in a position to construct however added that “after five years, it’s clear Farcaster needs a new approach and leadership to reach its full potential.”
