Opinion: friend.tech has become an overnight hit, but will the hype last?

There’s only one thing the token community is talking about this week: friend.tech. More specifically, everyone is talking about the social app’s overnight success. friend.tech lets users tokenize friends and influencers, and it styles itself as “the marketplace for friends.” When someone buys shares of their favourite user, they can talk to them via private chat. The platform is growing fast. But will the hype last?

Influencers flock to friend.tech

friend.tech launched on Coinbase’s Layer 2 chain Base this month. To date, 65,000 users have joined and traded over 25,000 ETH. It’s currently the token ecosystem’s third biggest fee earner behind Ethereum and Lido. The project has also raised seed funding from major token investor Paradigm, and social heavyweights like FaZe Banks are showing interest. 

“The buzz could be short-lived.” 

So why is friend.tech popping off? There are several reasons, but Base hype, the smooth user experience, and support from key token personalities have all helped. Some think that the app could explode into the mainstream and inspire more innovation in decentralised social media if more celebrities jump on board.

Temporary hype or new paradigm?

I would stress a word of caution, though: the buzz could be short-lived. Throughout this bear market, the token community’s attention has jumped between different projects at a rapid rate. Things are quiet, so people rush to fresh money-making opportunities. While friend.tech is big today, a new thing could grab everyone’s attention next week. This trend has played out with countless other projects in the past. 

“Decentralised social has huge disruptive potential.” 

In the social space, Clubhouse and Threads quickly blew up and then died. Decentralised social has huge disruptive potential, but there’s nothing stopping this project from crashing. So know the game you’re playing if you plan to get involved.

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