The newest crypto “killer app” seems to be social tokenization protocol Friend.tech, and it has proven to be an absolute money printer for developers so far.
Friend.tech, which lets X (formerly Twitter) personalities issue shares on its app for access to a closed group chat, has made over $1.04 million in fees, set at 5% of the value of each transaction over the past 24 hours. That’s banked the platform some $709,000 worth of ether in revenue (what the platform takes after paying out gas fees and other costs), data from DefiLlama shows.
This is right behind the Ethereum blockchain, which made $3.33 million in fees, and staking service Lido – with $1.54 million in fees. Lido, however, made lower revenues at $154,000, making Friend.tech the biggest revenue generator among crypto services.
Such growth has come in a very short time, even for crypto’s fast-moving standards. Friend.tech’s invite-only beta launched on August 10 and racked up some 4,400 ETH (about $8.1 million) in trading volume on the first day. The app is built on Base, crypto exchange Coinbase’s new layer-2 network.
Shares of some crypto X personalities, such as Cobie and Hsaka, jumped to as much as three ether, or nearly $5,000 at current prices, in a few days.
Friend.tech is also taking the scam-riddled Base by storm. Last week, the network reached 136,000 daily active users – overtaking layer 2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism – much of which is attributed to the app’s users.
These group chats are quickly evolving into intimate community experiences for share buyers. Trading personality @RookieXBT is and X premium subscriptions to holders, while @DeFiMaestro is for a trading challenge.
Meanwhile, the hype could just be getting started.
A slew of personalities outside of crypto circles on X joined Friend.tech over the weekend – opening the floodgates to possible crypto adoption among the general populace, some opine.
Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson II, co-founder of the influential esports community FaZe Clan, joined the platform late Sunday and saw his share prices quickly become among the costliest. Elsewhere, NBA player Grayson Allen saw shares surge quickly in mere hours .
“I’ve always thought the idea of betting on the success of especially YouTubers/ streamers success would be cool,” FaZe Banks tweeted. “Outside of just time and resources. I’ve discovered so many talented people, a product like this is perfect for that.”
Edited by Sam Reynolds.
