Yahya 
Farcaster, a social media company that is built on the blockchain, has closed its Series A funding round at $150 million. The funding was headed by Paradigm venture, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Haun Ventures, USV, Variant, and Standard Crypto. This has sparked a wave in the blockchain space and notably triggered a 17% rise in the community-generated token Degen (DEGEN).
Driving Growth and Development
Farcaster’s founder, Dan Romero, who previously worked at Coinbase, shared the news on May 21 in a post on X, stating that he was sure that the money would “help sustain Farcaster for many years”. Walden, the co-founder and general partner at Variant Fund, said, “Farcaster is a burgeoning protocol that is already rapidly expanding.”
Romero also described the plans of the platform’s further development and its intention to increase the number of users. Since October, Farcaster has had 350,000 paid users and 50x network usage. The new funds will allow expanding the platform by adding channels and direct messages to boost the number of daily active users and attract developers.
Degen Token’s Remarkable Rise
The funding round was also quickly followed by a 17% increase in the price of the DEGEN token, which was trading at $0.02289, according to CoinMarketCap. Though DEGEN is not an official token of the Farcaster protocol, it is already an essential part of the platform’s social aspect.
DEGEN was launched in January by Jacek Trociński, who is a user of a Farcaster Degen channel, as memecoin. It was first distributed directly to users who made valuable submissions or engaged with the posts. Since then, DEGEN has emerged, and that is why Trociński created a meme coin-based layer-3 blockchain called the DEGEN chain, where DEGEN acts as the native gas token.
According to Bloomberg in March, the funding round will increase the valuation of Merkle Manufactory, the company behind Farcaster, to $1 billion, which will be a major achievement for the blockchain social network.
Future Prospects
Farcaster’s growth in the blockchain industry can be seen from the successful Series A funding and the increase in the DEGEN token price. Having attracted significant investments and a continually increasing audience, Farcaster is likely to expand its platform and strengthen its position in the sphere of social media.