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After only launching in August last year, Friend.tech is shutting down, leaving investors with losses and creators with gains of $44 million.
The crypto social network that operated on Coinbase’s Base blockchain generated $90 million in fees but half went to the development team. The price of FRIEND, the project's token, has fallen by 98% since its launch in May, including a 21% drop after the project announced it will be shutting down.
The decentralised social media platform by the creators of Stealcam that allowed users to buy and sell "keys" (originally named "shares") of Twitter accounts.
Friend.tech’s invite-only beta launched on 10 August, racking up 4,400 ETH in trading volume on the first day. Generating $2.88 million in protocol fees, it was once the third-largest cryptocurrency protocol by market cap.
Blockhead
When Blockhead signed up to the platform just weeks after its launch last year, our keys were targeted by what are presumably bots on Friend.tech. Peaking at 0.00625 ETH, Blockhead keys are now worth nothing.
On Monday, the project's creators announced that they transferred the admin and ownership rights of the protocol’s code to a null address, making it impossible to make any further changes or collect fees. The protocol technically still exists but the move effectively ends the project.
Friend.tech's decline has been an ongoing issue, with deposits falling from $52 million to just $4 million and daily user engagement dropping to single digits. Daily generated fees, which hit $2 million in the past are now at less than $100.
David Harrington
However, this might not be the final end for Friend.tech. Previously abandoned crypto projects have been revived by new teams. Andre Cronje's protocol Solidly was forked and relaunched as Aerodrome on the Base network.
