Friend.Tech’s native token plummets by 98% upon launch! What are the three reasons causing the airdrop to fall far below expectations?

Friend.tech Token Plummets After Launching V2 Update and Airdrop
Friend.tech, a decentralized social platform based on Base, became a hot topic during the May 1st holiday. On May 3rd, it launched its V2 version and also airdropped its native token, FRIEND.
However, the airdrop that was supposed to generate excitement and goodwill for the project instead sparked mockery within the crypto community. According to DexScreener data, FRIEND experienced a nearly 98% drop in value after going live, plunging from around $169 to approximately $3.26 at one point. According to CMC data, it even hit a low of $0.8 before rebounding to its current price of $2.53. This article will take you through the ups and downs of the Friend.tech airdrop event.
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Airdrop Returns Fall Below Expectations and Distribution Appears “Concentrated”
After the FRIEND airdrop, some analysts criticized the distribution mechanism, claiming that creators received a larger portion of the token allocation compared to retail investors. Hitesh Malviya, the founder of crypto analysis platform DYOR, stated that this distribution was a case of “concentrated airdrop.”
“Most users received an airdrop that was 10 times less than what they expected, so many of them didn’t even bother claiming it because the amount was less than $200 for most retail investors. At the same time, very few ended up profiting significantly, making it a highly concentrated airdrop case.”
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Largest Airdrop Recipient Quickly Dumps Tokens, Some Users Unable to Claim
Shortly after the airdrop went live on Friend.Tech, the largest recipient of the airdrop sold off all their tokens within a few hours, causing concerns in the market. Blockchain data showed that the largest whale, “Murphys1d,” sold over 55,000 FRIEND tokens shortly after the airdrop went live, resulting in an initial price drop of around 50%. The whale’s sell-off triggered panic selling in the market, leading to further decline.
During this period, some users complained about API malfunctions that prevented them from claiming tokens during the price drop. Crypto trader Luke Martin, on X platform, stated, “I kept refreshing the page trying to claim, but I watched the value of my airdrop drop from seven figures to five figures within two hours, and I couldn’t claim it.”
Researcher 0xCygaar pointed out that the surge in traffic overloaded Friend.Tech’s backend, and it was evident that no scalability measures were taken. The proof-of-eligibility check also experienced malfunctions, and some users even resorted to manually claiming the airdrop from the contract using the BaseScan browser tutorial.
Even those who successfully claimed the tokens had complaints, as the price dropped 46% from $2.78 to $1.49 within less than four hours. The community believes that besides being non-transferable except for trading on BunnySwap, the developers’ addition of only $0.01 liquidity was the main factor for the rapid price decline.
Club Feature Also Questioned
Friend.Tech was initially launched in August 2023, offering an invitation-only service with a reward point system. The V2 version introduced new features such as Money Club and a new point system. Money Club provides users with a dedicated space for financial discussions and interactions, while the new point system rewards users for their contributions and interactions on the platform.
However, the Club feature also faced criticism from some users. On one hand, in order to drive traffic to the Club feature, the airdrop design allowed each user to directly claim only 10% of the airdrop, with the full amount requiring joining the “Money Club” and following 10 users on v2. There were also some bugs in the software, with users reporting that newly created Clubs were not displaying. Additionally, Friend.Tech quietly integrated its own exchange (RabbitRouter + BunnySwap) into the app, charging a 1.5% transaction fee, as pointed out by Ethereum investor @eric.eth.
According to Dune data, since the release of V2 on May 4th, there have been 112,346 Clubs created, with a total transaction volume of 16,899,404 FRIEND and Club fees reaching 252,651 FRIEND.


It’s worth mentioning that despite the underwhelming performance of the Friend.Tech token, some whales still managed to profit. According to Lookonchain monitoring on May 5th, the top 5 buyers of FRIEND have accumulated an estimated profit of $2.89 million.
Furthermore, according to The Data Nerd, three days ago, a savvy investor, 0xA26, spent $1.18 million to accumulate 732,000 FRIEND tokens at an average entry price of $1.61, currently resulting in an unrealized profit of approximately $807,000.
Despite the controversies, Friend.Tech remains a significant player in the Web3 social media space, and only time will tell if it can continue to lead the SocialFi revolution.
This article is published in cooperation with PANews.