Each day, Coinrule will run through the state of the digital assets market for Blockbeat, your home for news, analysis, opinion and commentary on blockchain and digital assets.
The beauty of crypto is it encompasses a variety of already existing and emerging sectors. Social Finance (SoFi) is an example of this. It merges already existing Web 2.0 social media platforms and ideas, with features and incentive mechanisms of Decentralised Finance (DeFi). Last Friday, the SoFi platform FriendTech launched and airdropped their own token (FRIEND) on Base. As always with crypto, there was not a lack of volatility.
So, what exactly is FriendTech? Crypto has many influencers, or more commonly now known as key opinion leaders (KOLs), who share their thoughts predominantly on Crypto Twitter. These entities often build their following and influence by sharing insightful opinions and threads about tokens, or seem to share profitable trades that their followers profit from. Prior to FriendTech, influencers would often use alternative social media platforms, such as Discord or Telegram. Creators will use these to monetise their audience by creating private groups accessed by paying an upfront or monthly fee. These groups often promise followers they will be able to connect more with the influencer and their community. However, if you no longer wanted access to the group there was no way to trade access and recoup your investment.
FriendTech aims to capture this process of obtaining and trading exclusive access to an influencer and groups. The launch of the token was accompanied by the platform’s v2 release. This included new features, such as “clubs,” that act as community spaces. Access to these requires purchasing their token, or “key.” Demand will dictate the value of a key, and as more keys are created, the price will increase. Therefore, users can trade keys of influencers they think will become more popular. Currently, the most valuable keys are for Influencers’ clubs and fetch up to $7,000.
The launch of the token was a turbulent one. One of the key criticisms was the lack of liquidity the token had on launch. Allegedly, the team only deposited $0.01 worth of liquidity into the Uniswap liquidity pool. This caused the token to spike from an opening price of around $3 to $160 a couple of hours after launch. In the following hours it then dropped below $1. Issues whilst claiming also meant users with airdropped tokens could not sell them, adding to the frustration.
Regardless of the shaky start, since v2’s launch, over 60,000 unique addresses have joined over 90,000 clubs according to FriendTech’s data. Will this become another social media fad or will the ability to trade attention and invest in your favourite influencers hit the mainstream?