Farcaster Switches to Wallet-First Strategy to Grow its Social App

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Farcaster Switches to Wallet-First Strategy to Grow its Social App The protocol still consists of casts, follows, reactions, identities and wallets, and third-party clients are free to emphasize whichever components they want. By Shaurya Malwa | Edited by Omkar Godbole Dec 8, 2025, 7:58 a.m. What to know : Farcaster is shifting its focus from social media to its in-app wallet and trading features to drive user engagement. Cofounder Dan Romero acknowledged the lack of sustainable growth in their social-first strategy over the past 4.5 years. The wallet's trading tools have shown the strongest product-market fit, leading to a strategic pivot towards financial use cases. Farcaster will now center its roadmap around its in-app wallet and trading features as the key product area to show sustained traction after years of stalled social growth. Cofounder Dan Romero said in a series of posts over the weekend Romero said the team spent 4.5 years pursuing a social-first strategy but never achieved a durable growth loop, despite attempts to seed activity and support third-party clients. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . “We haven’t been able to find a sustainable growth mechanic for the Twitter-like social network,” he said. “No product-market fit.” The wallet, launched earlier this year, has quickly become the network’s strongest driver of new users and engagement, prompting the company to reorient its focus around financial use cases rather than social ones. Romero added the wallet’s trading tools have shown the clearest evidence of product-market fit in Farcaster’s five-year history. “To reiterate: we’re focused on building a great wallet,” he wrote. “Every new, retained wallet user is a new user for the protocol.” The shift marks a significant strategic break for a project that once positioned itself as the most credible attempt to decentralize consumer social media. Instead, Romero articulated a “come for the tool, stay for the network” thesis, which onboards users through a useful wallet, then expose them to social features built on the same protocol. As such, Romero pushed back on criticism that the pivot turns Farcaster into a trading app with a social wrapper. The protocol, he said, still consists of casts, follows, reactions, identities and wallets, and third-party clients are free to emphasize whichever components they want. “Our app is leaning more into the intersection between wallets and social,” he said, noting alternatives like Uno, Recaster, Zapper and Firefly. More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. 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