The value of the community-created token Degen (DEGEN) from the Farcaster blockchain-based social platform surged by 17% following the confirmation of a successful $150 million funding round. Led by venture firm Paradigm, the Series A round also saw participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Haun, USV, Variant, and Standard Crypto. Farcaster founder Dan Romero expressed his gratitude for the funds, stating that they will provide support for the development of Farcaster for many years to come. Back in March, Romero hinted at the funding round on Warpcast but refrained from providing further details. Bloomberg previously reported that the funding round would increase the valuation of Merkle Manufactory, the company behind Farcaster, to $1 billion.
Variant Fund’s co-founder and general partner Jesse Walden described Farcaster as a fledgling yet rapidly growing protocol in a statement on May 21. Romero emphasized that the funds raised will enable the protocol to attract more users, highlighting the significant growth in paid sign-ups and network activity since October. He also revealed plans to focus on increasing daily active users and introducing “developer primitives” such as channels and direct messaging to the protocol.
DEGEN, the community-created token from Farcaster, experienced a 17% surge in value following the funding announcement and is currently trading at $0.023, according to CoinMarketCap. Originally launched as a community memecoin by Jacek Trociński in January, DEGEN was airdropped to users as a reward for their content creation and engagement. The token has since gained popularity, prompting Trociński to launch the DEGEN chain, a meme coin-focused layer-3 blockchain on Base, with DEGEN serving as the native gas token.