Excitement Builds with Airdrop Claims and Version 2 Release

• Friend.tech, the social media app on Base, has launched Version 2 (V2) and airdropped its FRIEND token to its early users.
• The event has not gone smoothly, with several eligible airdrop recipients unable to claim their tokens and the early recipients dumping all their tokens and tanking the price.

FriendTech, the decentralized social media app that launched to great reception and quickly rose to become a crypto industry darling, has launched its Version 2 and airdropped its FRIEND token.

The platform launched last August and was an immediate hit, briefly surpassing Bitcoin and Uniswap for transaction fees and bringing Base’s Layer 2 network to the mainstream, as Crytpo News Flash reported. However, shortly after, the hype ebbed away and by the end of the year, few were using it.

To reignite the buzz, the social media project’s developers announced they would be airdropping the FRIEND token in late April before postponing it to May 3. They kept their word and distributed 13,349,967 FRIEND tokens to early users of its platform.

However, the airdrop and V2 launch didn’t go as planned. For starters, several users were unable to claim their tokens, leading to outrage on X. One such aggrieved user, renowned crypto investor and analyst Luke Martin, wrote:

Watching the value of my airdrop go from 7 figs to 5 figs in the span of 2hrs while I keep refreshing the page trying to claim….still can’t claim. Meanwhile I gotta watch this guy cashout while my wallet won’t even load. Adds insult to injury.

Several others expressed similar sentiments. One user lamented: “Literally all my friend.tech points are gone, and I have 0 FRIEND to claim?”

CT trying to claim the $FRIEND airdrop pic.twitter.com/QzBaSrw7bL

— L (@0xLawliette) May 3, 2024

Friend.tech Airdrop Goes Wrong, V2 Glitchy

Beyond the airdrop glitches, the FRIEND tokens got off to a horrible start. According to DexScreener, the token launched at around $3 and quickly went up, hitting a high of $18.3 shortly after (it even hit a high of $169, but only for a few seconds before normal market conditions resumed).

However, once users started receiving the tokens, some immediately dumped them, tanking the price. At press time, FRIEND trades at $1.19.

The biggest airdrop recipient, known only as Murphys1d, received 50,000 FRIEND tokens and immediately dumped them, drawing the ire of the entire Friend.tech community.

However, whale dumping in the community isn’t new. Every airdrop is followed by an immediate dump from a rising group of airdrop farmers. According to Andy Lian, an industry expert, this shouldn’t faze the true believers in the underlying blockchain value. He told one outlet:

While it might cause a short-term dip in price due to increased supply and potential panic selling, it doesn’t always mean a long-term downtrend. To me, it is a good thing […] The sell-off would mean a more decentralized distribution of tokens. A broader distribution reduces the risk of a single entity having excessive control over the project.

It’s not just the airdrop glitches and token dumps that plagued Friend.tech. The project’s newest version, V2, launched with major glitches. Users interested in the Clubs feature were unable to access it with V2.

Numerous people reporting that they have followed 10ppl and joined numerous clubs but still receiving “Join a club INCOMPLETE” when trying to claim the rest of the airdrop. @friendtech $friend $friends

— t3rm1nal (@DigitalAssett) May 3, 2024