Friend.tech V2 Goes Live as Hype Builds for 100% Airdrop of FRIEND Token

As blockchain-based social app friend.tech prepares to launch its much-anticipated version 2, the team said it’s already taken a snapshot for the much-anticipated 100% airdrop of its FRIEND token.

“We’ve locked in points balances and unlinking or relinking your Twitter will no longer transfer points,” they wrote on Twitter, “Join us next week for when points go onchain.” There’s no word yet on when the airdrop will take place, but there’s been speculation that it may be as soon as next week, when points balances go onchain.

Friend.tech is a decentralized social media platform on Base, a Coinbase-incubated Ethereum L2. When the social platform launched in August 2023, it generated a ton of hype, some controversy, and was briefly one of the largest blockchain platforms.

It works by allowing “subjects,” or social media personalities, to offer “shares” to their community. Those shares grant users access to private chats, where they hope the subjects will drop perks and tradeable information. But the excitement died down and so, too, did active users on the platform.

But fees, trading, and activity on friend.tech spiked earlier this month when momentum started building behind news that the team would soon be releasing version 2 of the platform. At the time of writing, there’s $34.4 million worth of total value locked (TVL) on friend.tech, according to DeFi Llama. That’s a far cry from the $52 million that was there during its peak in October.

Version 2 of Friend.tech introduces several new features, including Money Club. The Money Club feature will allow communities to manage shared treasuries and mint tradable onchain collectibles, like NFTs, meme coins, and other kinds of media. The platform is also rolling out its new point system—which will be used for the airdrop—and custom curves, which enable users to create their own engagement metrics.

There’ll be small usability updates as well, like allowing subjects to customize their chat spaces aesthetically and functionally with options like polls, raffles, and visual themes.

Crypto investor John Wang shared details about V2 in a Twitter thread last month.

“V1 was the beta,” he wrote. “This time around FT is planning to stay. You’re not positioned yet, are you anon?”