thirdweb Acquires Web3 Social Media Platform Yup

We just acquired one of the leading decentralized social media platforms, Yup, to further our mission of providing the most complete web3 development toolkit.

Author

Jem Conlon
February 11, 2025

Hey builder! We’ve got some exciting news to share:

thirdweb just acquired Yup 🚀 !!

The current state of social media is dire. Most popular platforms, such as X, Instagram or TikTok, are under centralized control. That means those centralized entities control your data & capture all of the revenue from your interaction. It’s simply not fair.

Decentralized social media platforms offer an alternative where users govern platforms, creators earn directly, and open protocols prevent unilateral censorship.

And at thirdweb, we understand how integral web3 social media platforms will become in the digital sphere.

That’s why we’ve acquired Yup, one of the leading web3 social media platforms.

thirdweb x Yup: driving web3 social innovation

Our acquisition of Yup will accelerate our ability to provide leading tools for ecosystems like Farcaster and Lens Protocol, streamlining features such as portable identities, anti-censorship relays, and creator monetization layers—critical steps toward building onchain social apps. 

Meet the new members of the team

As part of the acquisition, we welcome Yup’s talent onto the thirdweb team.

Let’s meet them!

Nir Kabessa as Senior Product Manager

Nir went to Columbia University and has invested and advised early stage web3 startups for several years, such as Farcaster, Wombo, Hedera, Kadena, Blockaid, XMTP, and Rainbow.

Vernon Johnson as Senior Software Engineer

Vernon also went to Colombia University, and has previously worked with Ripple’s Coil team and Google as well as being a Gates Scholar at Columbia.

Meeting at university, Nir and Vernon founded the blockchain lab where they developed their passion for web3 protocols and decentralized apps.

We look forward to this new chapter and the advancements it will bring to the thirdweb ecosystem. Together with the team, we will continue to innovate and deliver unparalleled solutions to developers and creators worldwide, paving the way for web3 adoption.

To learn more more about the acquisition, check out our blog 👇️ 👇️