Friend.tech made a remarkable debut in the ever-changing world of decentralized networks. However, less than three weeks after its spectacular launch, the social platform’s attraction appears to be fading, as demonstrated by decreasing metrics. Is the buzz already fading?
When the beta version of Friend.tech debuted on Coinbase’s cutting-edge layer-2 Base on August 11, it didn’t simply produce ripples; it caused waves. Only a week after its inception, the platform’s fees skyrocketed, reaching a stunning $1 million in a single day on August 19. It left heavyweights like Uniswap and even the colossus Bitcoin network in its wake in just 24 hours.
However, much like the meteoric rise of a star, Friend.tech’s spectacular stats began to fail. According to DefiLlama data, a spectacularly high charge of $1.7 million on Aug. 21 fell by an astounding 87%, dropping to a measly $215,000 by Aug. 26.
With transactions, a similar story unfolded. From a peak of roughly 525,000 on Aug. 21, they plummeted by more than 90%, registering just over 51,000 by Aug. 27. This data, meticulously collated by Crypto Koryo through Dune Analytics, has many digital observers on sites such as Twitter nearly writing eulogies for the young network.
Dive deeper into Friend.tech’s business model, and it becomes clear that it is a marketplace for “keys,” which, when acquired, allow the buyer to send private messages to the seller. Notably, the platform purportedly keeps 5% of these transactions. This novel model drew interest from both crypto enthusiasts and mainstream influencers. Cobie from the UpOnly podcast, famous YouTuber Faze Banks, and the well-known Russian protest organization Pussy Riot were all mentioned.
Despite these digital highs and lows, skeptics made their views heard. Notably, Coinbase payments risk manager Lisandro Rodriguez issued a frank conclusion on Aug. 27, calling the platform “dead.” Rodriguez blamed his fall from glory on “greed and poor execution.”
Dune Analytics data, which supported his point of view, showed a troubling picture. From a peak of 58,000 buyers and 27,000 vendors on August 21, Friend.tech saw those figures fall to under 10,000 buyers and 7,800 sellers on August 27.
Furthermore, inflows mirrored this downward pattern. They peaked at an impressive $16.8 million on August 21 before dropping over 90.5% to roughly $1.6 million on August 27.
While many were taken aback, some cryptocurrency experts had already expressed their reservations. Yazan, a crypto analyst, recently expressed his doubts to Cointelegraph. He predicted a decrease in user key prices and overall activity within six to eight weeks.
The criticism did not stop there. The evolution of Friend.tech has drawn analogies to the 2021 DeSo app BitCloud. Legendary, a fictitious Web3 marketer, predicted that Friend.tech would “implode as BitClout did.”
Only time will tell whether Friend.tech can withstand the storm or if it will become a footnote in crypto history.
