Friend.tech Faces Token Drop Amid Co-Founder’s Departure Plans

The native token of Friend.tech, a Web3 social network, sharply declined in value today.

The massive drop followed a social media post from the project’s co-founder, Racer, indicating a desire to leave the Base network.

Racer’s Post Causes Sharp Decline in FRIEND Value

Friend.tech’s token, FRIEND, dropped by over 27% after Racer’s post. His message on X offered $200,000 for a system design to migrate Friend.tech off Base without significant user issues.

“System design bounty: If you can figure out a way to migrate friendtech off Base without major issues for users, and it works well enough for us to use, we will pay you $200K,” Racer posted.

Read more: What is Friend.Tech? A Deep Dive Into The Web3 Social Media App

The relationship between Friend.tech and Base has been rocky. Racer noted that Farcaster investors misconstrued  their project at launch, straining the relationship with the Base community. This caused the Friend.tech team to feel ostracized and disconnected from the Base and Ethereum ecosystems.

Jesse Pollak, who leads Base at Coinbase, responded with understanding. In his post, Pollak acknowledged that project’s team felt isolated and expressed support for whatever path they chose.

“I’ll be sad if the team decides to leave Base, but I also respect and will support whatever path – that’s the beauty of the decentralized, on-chain economy,” Pollak wrote.

Launched on August 10, 2023, Friend.tech has become one of the top decentralized applications (dApps) on the Base network. It has attracted over 200,000 users and facilitated a trading volume exceeding $230 million. The platform converts user influence into tradable tokens known as “keys,” allowing users to access a creator’s attention or influence.

Friend.tech recently made headlines due to its second version (Friend.tech V2) debut and a native token airdrop. The FRIEND token is claimed to be solely owned by its user base and has a market cap of around $200 million.

Franklin Templeton’s analysis reveals that roughly 46% of all transactions on Base are intertwined with SocialFi applications, marking Friend.tech as a prime example. The recent developments raise questions about project’s future on the Base network. While Racer’s posts are inaccessible, the market reacted swiftly and significantly.