Overview
- Neynar is acquiring Farcaster’s protocol contracts, code repositories, the core app (Warpcast), and Clanker, taking over operation and maintenance.
- Co-founders Dan Romero and Varun, along with parts of Merkle’s team, are stepping back from daily management as Farcaster emphasizes that the network is not shutting down.
- Merkle Manufactory will return $180 million to investors, according to 99Bitcoins’ reporting on the handoff.
- Romero said the protocol worked as designed but never found a repeatable growth engine, with onboarding friction limiting adoption despite reaching roughly 250,000 monthly users and over 100,000 funded wallets by December.
- The transition formalizes Neynar’s longstanding role providing APIs and tooling, with the company signaling a developer-first focus and, per 99Bitcoins, securing $14 million to expand its engineering team.