Merkle Manufactory to Return $180M to Backers as Neynar Takes Over Farcaster

Merkle Manufactory, developer of the Farcaster social protocol, said late Thursday it will return $180 million in venture funding to investors. Co-founder Dan Romero stated the network remains active, citing 250,000 December MAU and over 100,000 funded wallets, while Neynar assumes control of smart contracts, code repositories, the mobile app, and the Clanker token launchpad.