Farcaster builds its “come for the earnings, stay for the network” flywheel powered by Morpho

In December 2025, Farcaster cofounder Dan Romero introduced a pivot in the protocol’s strategy to build its decentralized social network.

He summarized it with Chris Dixon’s (General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz) thesis, “come for the tool, stay for the network.” What made the wallet different is that it is not just a new feature, it is a new flywheel to introduce new users to the network. Farcaster Wallet is the tool. Farcaster is the network.

“First, every user who signs up, funds, and starts using the wallet is also on the protocol,” Dan explained. If the wallet becomes useful, protocol usage grows with it. And because Farcaster already has a social graph, the wallet doesn’t have to be a sterile fintech surface; it can become a social wallet that inherits distribution, identity, and community.”

The immediate next question was practical: what is the most universal “tool” that makes people fund the wallet and come back daily? There are many ways to receive USDC onchain, but once they arrive in users’ Farcaster Wallets, the funds become idle and non-productive.

So Farcaster sharpened the thesis into something even more direct for its wallet-first strategy:

Come for the earnings, stay for the network.

Farcaster integrated Morpho natively to make USDC lending a one-tap experience inside Farcaster Wallet.

From the user’s point of view, earning interest on their USDC is simple: open the wallet, tap “USDC Lending,” deposit, and start earning. The experience is designed to feel like a default “put my USDC to work” button rather than a separate DeFi expedition that involves leaving Farcaster Wallet and go elsewhere.

Under the hood, the yield comes from the Farcaster x Steakhouse Prime vault on Base, in a similar setup to the Coinbase DeFi lending integration with close to $500M in deposits to date. Farcaster can ship quickly while leaning on infrastructure and operational maturity that’s already battle-tested in production.

Steakhouse’s curation strategy is tailored specifically for Farcasters’ needs: put their hard-earned USDC from more risky bets into earning opportunities that are the safest onchain. The vault is an institutional-grade, blue-chip asset only, and includes governance protections like a timelock and guardian, so depositors have meaningful checks on major changes.

And critically, Morpho-powered yield has become the front door to future onchain products Farcaster is building in the wallet.

Once users arrive for yield and keep a balance in-wallet, Farcaster can pull them into the rest of the onchain experience: simpler USDC-based buy/sell flows, market discovery surfaces like Pulse and Watchlists, and mini apps that sit right inside the Farcaster feed.

The early signal is strong: Farcasters have deposited over $1 million through USDC lending within the first week.

More importantly, the integration supports Farcaster’s broader strategy: when people fund the wallet, they’re not just using a feature, they’re participating in the protocol by default. Yield brings them in. The wallet keeps them active. User activities compound Farcaster into a richer onchain social and financial home base. In turn, this compounding effect makes Farcaster more attractive to the next wave of users.

The Farcaster flywheel has now taken shape: come for the earnings, stay for the network.