Despite Friend.tech becoming the largest crypto platform by revenue earlier this month, scores of market participants are now pointing to a 95% drop in buying and selling volumes. Data shows transactional activity on the platform has slumped from a peak of $16 million on August 21 to just over $700,000 as of Thursday. Analytics firm Arkham tweeted, “On-chain, some of the exit narratives seem a little exaggerated.” The firm pointed out users continue to hold 3,870 ETH worth of keys, or just a 10% drop over the past week.
Friend.tech, a social app, lets X (formerly Twitter) personalities issue “keys” on its app to access a closed group chat. The platform has earned over $4.2 million worth of ether in fees for creators over this period. It is built on Base, crypto exchange Coinbase’s new layer-2 network. Cumulative volumes grew from $80 million to $85 million so far this week, flatlining from a multifold surge from $2 million to $80 million in the first two weeks after going live on August 10.
Despite the drop in revenue activity, actual user activity is seemingly chugging along. The data shows total users have nearly doubled in the past week – with at least 5,000 returning users daily, or those who use the platform on consecutive days. Friend.tech developers claim over 75% of key holders use their app the next day and over 50% still use it after a week. Developers also said the average active key holder spends over 30 minutes per day using Friend.tech.
A slew of personalities outside of crypto circles on X joined Friend.tech in the past few weeks, fueling its viral popularity. This included the likes of Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson II, co-founder of the influential esports community FaZe Clan, NBA player Grayson Allen and a bunch of popular creators from subscription site OnlyFans.