Friend.tech burst onto the crypto scene in August of the previous year, introducing an innovative model that allowed users to buy and sell “keys” associated with Twitter (now X) accounts.
Marketed as a “marketplace for your friends,” the keys granted users access to private group chats within the Friend.tech app.
This concept quickly garnered attention from the crypto community, attracting significant participation from well-known figures in the industry.
The platform’s rapid rise was marked by an initial surge of activity, with Friend.tech’s protocol generating $22 million in fees, according to data from the Dune dashboard. Until recently, Friend.tech charged a 10% fee on transactions, with the revenue split evenly between the platform and the owner of the account the key was based on.
However, the platform has now set its “admin and ownership parameters” to an address commonly used for burning tokens, signaling an end to its development and operational changes.
In a recent Twitter (now X) post, Friend.tech confirmed the change, stating that the parameters had been set to 0x000…000 to prevent any alterations to the platform’s fees or functionality in the foreseeable future.
This decision effectively means that no further updates or modifications will be made to the platform, and it will remain in its current state.
The team behind Friend.tech clarified that this change does not affect the separate web client, which will continue to function as is.
Despite this, Friend.tech’s announcement has left many in the community wondering about the future of the platform.
The project’s developers have confirmed that no fees from the smart contracts or Friend.tech are currently directed to a wallet controlled by the development team.
This indicates that the creators no longer benefit from the platform’s user activity and are unable to make any changes to it moving forward.
The precise amount of funds generated by Friend.tech development end remains somewhat unclear. DefiLlama estimates that the total figure could be around $63 million, but it is still unknown how these funds were ultimately utilized.
As users await further clarification, the lack of transparency regarding the project’s financial dealings has added to the uncertainty surrounding its future.
According to crypto analytics platform Arkham, the wallet linked to Friend.tech’s development team currently holds approximately $193,000 in various tokens.
Over the past eight months, this wallet has deposited a substantial $36 million. Other wallets associated with Friend.tech have also made significant deposits to Coinbase, including one that received transaction fees.
This wallet, which deposited Ethereum worth $16 million into Coinbase nine months ago, now has a balance of $177 in Ethereum.
The abrupt end to Friend.tech’s development has coincided with a dramatic decline in user activity. At its peak in September last year, the platform recorded 500,000 daily transactions.
However, this figure has since plummeted to below 200 transactions as of the latest update. Additionally, the price of FRIEND, the platform’s native token, has experienced a severe drop.
Shortly after its launch in May, FRIEND reached a peak price of over $3. Since then, its value has fallen by 97%, reaching $0.07 on Monday, according to CoinGecko.
During its peak, Friend.tech attracted significant attention from prominent crypto influencers, including the pseudonymous meme coin trader Ansem and Su Zhu, the co-founder of the now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital.
A total of 905,000 different accounts created keys on the platform, highlighting its initial success. However, the project’s inability to expand beyond the Coinbase-incubated layer-2 network and its subsequent decision to cancel plans for its own Ethereum scaling network have contributed to its decline.
Friend.tech’s journey has also seen previous ventures by its pseudonymous founders, who created Stealcam—a decentralized media distribution platform.
This earlier experiment aimed to incentivize users to purchase JPEGs from one another to access hidden content. Despite the innovative approach, the project did not achieve lasting success.
As Friend.tech faces an uncertain future, the platform has witnessed a slight increase in activity following the recent announcement.
On Monday, the platform recorded 18 users purchasing keys, while 192 users sought to sell them. The mixed signals about the platform’s future and the absence of further development raise questions about its long-term viability.
In summary, Friend.tech development end abrupt halt in development and the handover of control to a burn address have left the platform’s future in doubt.
While the platform will continue to function in its current state, the lack of ongoing development and financial transparency has cast a shadow over its prospects.
As the crypto community reflects on the rise and fall of Friend.tech, it serves as a reminder of the volatile nature of the crypto industry and the challenges faced by innovative projects in this space.
