Farcaster co-founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan said on Monday they will join stablecoin-focused startup Tempo, signaling a shift away from crypto-native social media and toward blockchain-based payments.
The move follows last month’s acquisition of Farcaster by Neynar, a longtime infrastructure provider for the protocol that offers APIs and tools for developers building on the network.
Farcaster was once billed as the crypto answer to Twitter, a protocol-based alternative where users controlled their identities and data. After Neynar’s acquisition, Romero, Srinivasan and several members of their team at Merkle, the company behind Farcaster, stepped away from the project.
In a post on X, Romero said he is now focused on building a “fast, affordable and transparent” global payments network on Tempo.
Quietly launched last year, Tempo quickly gained attention as one of the best-capitalized startups in the stablecoin space. It was incubated by payments giant Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm, both of which have deep experience in building and scaling financial infrastructure. Tempo’s goal is to boost international payments using stablecoins, offering an alternative to traditional cross-border systems that remain expensive, slow and opaque.
