In a recent funding round, Degen, a blockchain-based social platform developed by the Farcaster community, experienced a notable 17% surge following the confirmation of raising $150 million. The Series A funding was spearheaded by venture firm Paradigm, with notable contributions from Andreessen Horowitz, Haun, USV, Variant, and Standard Crypto. Farcaster's founder, Dan Romero, disclosed in a post on May 21 that these funds are earmarked to sustain Farcaster's development for the foreseeable future.

A Milestone for the Degen Network

Former Coinbase executive, Romero, had hinted at this funding round through Warpcast back in March, withholding detailed information at that time. Bloomberg had earlier reported that this funding round would elevate the valuation of Merkle Manufactory, the entity behind the Farcaster social network, to $1 billion. Jesse Walden, co-founder and general partner at Variant Fund, emphasized on May 21 that Farcaster is an emerging protocol with rapid growth potential. Romero expressed confidence that this financial boost would facilitate the protocol in attracting a larger user base.

Romero highlighted Farcaster's achievements, citing a significant growth in paid registrations, reaching 350,000 since October, and a remarkable 50-fold surge in network activity. He outlined the platform's strategic focus on enhancing daily active users and integrating developer tools like channels and direct messaging into the protocol.

Farcaster's Front and DEGEN

DEGEN, the unofficial token of the Farcaster community and protocol, witnessed a 17% surge in response to the news, currently trading at $0.023 as per CoinMarketCap. In January, Jacek Trocinski, a regular on the Farcaster Degen channel, initiated DEGEN as a community memecoin project, distributing it through airdrop events to users engaging in quality content creation. Subsequently, the token gained momentum, leading Trocinski to introduce a memecoin-centric Layer-3 blockchain network named DEGEN Chain, utilizing Degen as the native transaction fee token on Base. The memecoin trend within the network has captured the attention of numerous investors, resulting in a substantial increase in the network's user base.