Farcaster, Blockchain-Based Social Media Startup, Raises $150M, Led by Paradigm

Farcaster, a blockchain-based social-media project, has secured $150 million in a fundraising round led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z, Haun, USV, Variant and Standard Crypto, according to a post by founder Dan Romero.

"This will support our work on Farcaster for many years to come," Romero wrote Tuesday in an update. He added that the project was hiring staff-level engineers.

Farcaster is built atop the Ethereum blockchain as well as OP Mainnet in the Optimism layer-2 ecosystem, according to the project's documentation.

The project went "permissionless" in October and has since seen "350,000 paid sign-ups and a 50x increase in network activity," Romero wrote in Tuesday's post. "There are hundreds of developers building on the protocol and a growing number of apps and frames for people to use."

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is signed up as a user of Farcaster's Warpcast app, and has made regular posts.

Romero famously was the former college roommate at Duke University of Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam.

Farcaster turned heads with the Jan. 26 release of a new "Frames" feature, which allows apps to run within posts, so users don't have to click off to another site.