Farcaster co-founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan said Monday they are joining stablecoin-focused startup Tempo, signaling a pivot 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 presented as crypto’s 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, cheap and transparent” global payment network at Tempo.
Tempo launched quietly last year and has quickly drawn attention as one of the most well-capitalized new ventures in the stablecoin space. It was incubated by payments giant Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm, both of which have extensive experience building and scaling financial infrastructure. Tempo’s goal is to power international payments using stablecoins, offering an alternative to traditional cross-border systems that remain expensive, slow and opaque.
