Merckle to Repay $180M to Farcaster Investors Amid Protocol Sale to Neynar

Merkle Manufactory, the developer of decentralized social protocol Farcaster, announced plans to fully repay its $180 million raised from venture investors following the sale of Farcaster to infrastructure firm Neynar. Co-founder Dan Romero clarified that Farcaster is not shutting down, stating the protocol will continue operating under new ownership. Neynar intends to shift Farcaster toward a more developer-focused direction. The acquisition, first revealed Wednesday, involves transferring Farcaster’s protocol contracts, code repositories, and core app to Neynar, which will assume operational responsibility. Founded in 2020 by Romero and Varun Srinivasan, Merckle raised funds from investors including a16z Crypto and Paradigm. Farcaster was last valued at $1 billion before the sale. The transition reflects a maturing phase for decentralized social media, with infrastructure teams taking on greater operational roles. Observers note this shift prioritizes reliability and scalability over ideological experimentation. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin highlighted Farcaster and Lens Protocol as examples of protocols maintaining user networks while changing operators. [2026-01-23 14:12 UTC]