Once a trailblazer in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, Friend.Tech's launch on August 11 was nothing short of spectacular. It quickly soared to the peak of revenue generation, outshining its contemporaries, and swiftly got an impressive 101,000-strong user base.
Renowned figures from the worlds of sports, commerce, and social media, including Grayson Allen, Cobie Smulders, Garry Tan, and the Hsaka Traders, were among the pioneering creators who embraced the platform.
However, things have gone downhill for the Web3-based social networking platform. At press time, the number of transactions on Friend.Tech has dropped drastically. Notably, transactions on the platform plummeted by more than 90%, from around 525K on August 21 to 51K on August 27.
Fees and User Engagement Drops on Friend.Tech
Once positioned as Ethereum's close contender in terms of revenue and fees generated, the decentralized finance platform dropped to the 10th position on Monday. The platform's earnings for the past 24 hours stood at $215,552, a stark contrast to its, as indicated by data from Dune Analytics.
On the other hand, there has been a massive drop in user engagement on Friend.Tech. From having 35K daily traders, the numbers dwindled drastically to a mere 6K by the onset of August 17, signifying an alarming 83% decrease. The ripple effect was seen in trading fees as well, which went from an impressive $1.7 million earlier this week to $95K as of August 27.
Reacting to the negative developments, users have voiced their concerns in a chorus of discontent. Ascending trading taxes, platform lag, and exorbitant pricing structures have all contributed to its present low state. Moreover, the unwelcome intrusion of bots into the Friend.Tech ecosystem further added to the slow descent of the Web3 marketplace.
Friend.Tech's Future in Doubt
In the recent turn of events, the future of the once-booming Friend.Tech has come into doubt amid its early excitement. Critics portray it as an "outdated" company, blaming its sharp drop on declining trading volumes, fund infusions, and declining platform activity. In particular, several critics have pronounced the social app dead.
On August 11, the long-awaited beta version of Friend.Tech was released on Coinbase's layer-2 network Base. With an astounding $1 million in daily fees within a week, it started on a victorious note, with transactions on the marketplace surpassing that of Uniswap and Bitcoin.
The heights were, however, brief. As confirmed by DefiLlama's thorough statistics, the initial excitement had been replaced by a depressing lament by August 26: a steep 87% fall in daily fees, leaving just $215,000 to be collected.