Shane Mac

▸ $20M raised from a16z; powers 1,000+ mini-apps on Base App

Co-founder and President of XMTP — the open messaging protocol powering communication across crypto apps including Base App, Coinbase Wallet, and Converse. Previously built Assist (acquired by Conversocial) and Gist.com (acquired by BlackBerry for $40M+). Featured in a16z crypto's Big Ideas List 2026 for decentralized messaging. XMTP raised $20M Series A led by a16z.

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Projects

Convos● active

Secure chat app built on XMTP with wallet-native messaging.

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XMTP● active

Open messaging protocol for crypto apps. Powers Base App, Coinbase Wallet, Converse, and 1,000+ mini-apps built on wallet-native identity.

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Builders Like This

Dan Romero@dwr

Co-founder of Farcaster — the decentralized social protocol that launched Clanker and defined crypto-native social. Farcaster was acquired by Neynar in January 2026. Now at Tempo — the Stripe and Paradigm-backed stablecoin L1 raising $500M at $5B valuation, targeting mainstream global payments.

Farcaster co-founder; now at Tempo ($5B valuation, Stripe + Paradigm)

EthereumBase

Both building DeFi protocol on Base

Kain Warwick@kaiynne

Founder of Synthetix — one of DeFi's original protocols and the synthetic asset infrastructure underlying much of onchain derivatives. Now primarily building Infinex — a crypto superapp combining self-custody with CEX-level UX. Raised $67.7M via Patron NFT sale in 2025.

Founder of Synthetix + Infinex; $67.7M raised via NFT sale

EthereumBaseDeFi

Both building DeFi protocol on Base

Ben Fielding@benfielding

Featured

Co-founder and CEO of Gensyn. A deep-tech ML researcher building a first-of-its-kind decentralized compute protocol that connects global GPU networks. His infrastructure allows developers to train massive AI models on decentralized hardware with cryptographic verification — $50M+ raised, a16z-backed.

Gensyn: AI settlement launching on Mainnet April 2026

AIDePIN

Both building DeFi protocol