The value of the community-created token Degen (DEGEN) from the Farcaster blockchain-based social platform experienced a significant increase of 17% following the announcement that the platform raised $150 million in its latest funding round. The Series A round was led by Paradigm, a venture firm, and 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.
Romero, who previously held a position as an executive at Coinbase, had hinted at the funding round back in March but did not disclose any details at the time. In March, Bloomberg 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, praised Farcaster as a rapidly growing protocol in a statement on May 21. Romero also highlighted the importance of the funding in attracting more users to the platform, noting that Farcaster has seen a significant increase in network activity and paid sign-ups since October.
To further enhance the platform, Farcaster intends to focus on growing daily active users and introducing “developer primitives” like channels and direct messaging to the protocol.
DEGEN, which is not an official token of the Farcaster protocol but rather a community-created token, experienced a surge of 17% in value after the funding round was announced. The token is currently trading at $0.023 according to CoinMarketCap.
In January, Jacek Trociński, a frequent participant in the Farcaster Degen channel, launched DEGEN as a community memecoin. Users received the token as a reward for creating quality content or engaging with posts. Since then, the token has gained popularity, prompting Trociński to launch the DEGEN chain, a meme coin-focused layer-3 blockchain on Base, which utilizes Degen as its native gas token.