A crypto revolution is taking place in the social networking space. Newly launched decentralized social network (DeSo) Friend.tech has surpassed major blockchain networks, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Uniswap (UNI), by generating an astonishing $1 million in fees within 24 hours.
The platform released in beta on August 11 allows users to tokenize their social network by buying and selling “shares” of their connections.
This way, a person will only be able to send private messages or interact with another user if they purchase their shares. The share price fluctuates depending on supply and demand.
Friend.tech charges a 5% fee on every transaction, with the remaining chunk going to the owner of the profile.
Web3 Social Network Friend.tech Generates More In Fees Than Major Crypto Networks
Built on ‘Base’, which is Coinbase’s layer-2 scaling solution, the platform has seen an influx in activity over the past week. What started off as an invite-only beta program, now has 136,000 daily active users.
On the day of launch, Friend.tech amassed 4,400 ETH (approximately $8.1 million) in trading volume. In the meantime, the app surpassed layer-2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism in the number of users.
Things went up a notch on Saturday after DefiLlama reported that Friend.tech generated over $1.12 million in fees in under 24 hours of trading. Since its inception, the platform has collected $2.8 million in transaction fees.
According to reports, the social network has facilitated over 650,000 transactions from 60,000 unique traders, bringing its revenue total to a commendable $818,620.
A senior software engineer at Coinbase, who goes by the name ‘yugacohler’ on X (formerly Twitter) believes the mastermind behind the decentralized social media app to be pseudonymous blockchain developer ‘Racer’.
Racer was also the lead developer of TweetDAO and Stealcam, which are some of the first NFT-based DeSo networks that came into play.
The main aim of Friend.tech is to attract crypto influencers with a large social media following and enable them to earn royalties on trading fees by tokenizing their profiles.
Friend.tech Derives Revenue Solely Through Transaction Fees
Market experts and analysts are busy trying to understand the platform’s revenue model. Crypto analyst Laurence “functi0nZer0” did some research on Friend.tech’s share price to discover that the more shares a user issues, the higher its price will be.
Pseudonymous DeFi researcher “Ignas” pointed out that the social media network derives all of its profits via trading fees and not shareholders. Expressing his views on X, Ignas warned that some influencers might use FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) as a strategy to earn more in fees and increase their net value on Friend.tech.
Lux Moreau, founder of financial market community Talk.Markets highlighted a potential challenge that Friend.tech may face in the future. As shares are continuously sold on the platform, their prices will rise exponentially. This could lead to the formation of smaller or alternate groups.
Influencers Flocking To The App To Make The Most Of Their Fame
Crypto trading personality “RookieXBT” announced on X that he has started a thread on the app, inviting his followers to purchase shares that will grant them exclusive access to “themagnetgang” group as an affiliate. Shareholders who own at least 2 shares of the influencer will be granted X premium subscriptions.
NBA team Milwaukee Bucks’ player Grayson Allen joined Friend.tech on Monday and saw his shares surge in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengston II, the co-founder of the esports community FaZe Clan’, started an account on Sunday and his shares are now among the costliest on the platform.
The influencer went on X to laud how Friend.tech is the perfect tool for YouTubers and streamers to bet on their success.
Read More: BTC Plunges Below $26K As SpaceX Writes Down Its Cryptocurrency Holdings
