# What Is fomo? The Social Crypto Trading App, Explained

> fomo lets you buy crypto with Apple Pay and see what other traders are doing while you do it. What it actually is, who built it, and how it's different from a normal exchange app.

*Source: https://fomoappguide.com/ecosystem/what-is-fomo*

If someone sent you a fomo referral link, or you saw it mentioned as "the trading app with the feed," here's the short version: fomo is a phone app for buying crypto. You can pay with Apple Pay or a debit card, it sets up a wallet for you automatically, and it shows you what other people on the app are trading while you decide what to do yourself.

That combination — genuinely easy onboarding plus a social feed — is also exactly why it's worth reading past the pitch before you put money in. This page is the plain-language starting point; the rest of this guide covers the parts fomo's own marketing doesn't dwell on.

![fomo's home screen: portfolio balance, followed traders' recent gains, and a list of trending tokens](/images/ecosystem/what-is-fomo/fomo-app-icon.webp)

*Source: fomo -- official product image*

## The one-paragraph version

 fomo is a mobile app, built by **FOMO Labs Inc.**, that lets you buy and sell crypto — mostly memecoins and other small tokens, plus some major coins — across five blockchains: Solana, Base, BNB Chain, Monad and Ethereum. You sign up with an email or a social login, fomo creates a wallet for you behind the scenes, and you can fund it with a card, Apple Pay, or a transfer. Every trade you make (and every trade your followers make) shows up in a feed, so the app is part trading tool and part social network. It launched in April 2025.

> **Key takeaway:** fomo is not a scam or an anonymous project. It's a funded, identifiable company with real backers and a real product. The thing to be careful about isn't whether fomo itself is legitimate — it's that "easy to trade" and "cheap to trade" are two different promises, and this guide is mostly about the second one.

## Who's actually behind it

fomo Labs Inc. was founded by **Paul Erlanger** and **Se Yong Park**, with a third co-founder, **Prashan Dharmasena**, joining the team. Funding has come in three rounds:

| Round | Amount | Date | Led by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | $2M | February 2025 | 140+ angel investors, no lead |
| Series A | $17M | November 2025 | Benchmark |
| Series B | $75M | June 2026 | Index Ventures, with USV and Benchmark |

That's roughly **$94M raised total**, and the Series B valued the company at **$550M**. As of the June 2026 announcement, fomo said it had over 625,000 users and had processed around $4B in trading volume.

> **Note:** "FOMO" is a common piece of crypto slang, so the name attracts unrelated companies and tokens. fomo.com is a separate marketing SaaS business with no connection to fomo.family. There are also unrelated cryptocurrencies that use FOMO as a ticker. If you're trying to verify you're looking at the right thing, check for the domain **fomo.family** and the X account **@fomo**.

## What you can actually do in the app

- **Buy and sell tokens** across Solana, Base, BNB Chain, Monad and Ethereum, funded by a card, Apple Pay, or an existing crypto balance.
- **Follow other traders** and see their trades in a live feed — this is the "social" half of the app.
- **Trade perpetual futures** (leveraged positions) on crypto, some equities, and a few other markets. These aren't run by fomo itself — see our [perps guide](/guides/trading) for how that actually works.
- **Trade tokenized versions of some US stocks**, through a partner arrangement, in select regions.

One thing that's advertised on fomo's own marketing page but isn't documented anywhere in the official help center: automated **copy trading**, where you'd mirror another trader's positions automatically. As of this writing, that feature doesn't appear to actually exist yet — following someone's feed is not the same as auto-copying their trades. We cover this in more detail in our [trading features guide](/guides/trading).

 Perpetual futures on fomo are powered by outside venues, primarily **Hyperliquid**, not by fomo itself. That matters for fees, which we break down fully on the [fees page](/guides/fees).

## Why it's easy to get into — and why that's worth pausing on

fomo doesn't require you to already own crypto, understand a seed phrase, or move funds from an exchange first. You can go from downloading the app to owning your first token in a few taps, using a card you already have. That's a real, deliberate design choice, and it's a big part of why the app has grown quickly.

The tradeoff is that "easy to buy" doesn't mean "cheap to buy," and a feed of other people's trades can make buying feel more like following a crowd than making a decision. Neither of those is unique to fomo — they're true of most social trading apps — but they're worth knowing going in.

**Ready to try it?** — Sign up through our link and get a permanent 10% discount on trading fees. [Get the fomo app](https://fomo.family/r/Concept211)

## Where to go next

- New to the app entirely? Start with [How to Trade on fomo: A Beginner's Guide](/guides/getting-started).
- Want the real numbers on what a trade costs? Read [fomo Fees Explained](/guides/fees).
- Curious how it stacks up against other apps? See [fomo vs Moonshot](/compare/fomo-vs-moonshot).
- Wondering about the wallet and who holds your keys? Read our [security guide](/security).