Crypto Investor Loses $16 Million Amid Friend.tech’s Controversy And Token Crash

Rubmar Garcia

9 months ago

3 mins read

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Crypto social media platform Friend.tech faced backlash after a controversial decision by its team. The platform’s native token, FRIEND, plummeted over 42%, reaching its all-time low (ATL) price amid the controversy. As a result, an Ethereum (ETH) whale saw its investment in the token drop by over 95%.

Friend.tech Loses Investors’ Trust

Over the weekend, crypto platform Friend.tech announced its decision to resign control over its smart contracts to avoid future changes. Friends.tech is a Social Finance (SocialFi) platform launched in 2023 that combines the principles of social media and Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

The project is a blockchain-based social platform built on Ethereum’s Layer-2 Base, offering users the potential to profit from content creation. The crypto platform allows creators to monetize their content by using tradeable tokenized shares, known as “Keys,” to access their exclusive publications and private chats.

On September 7, Friend.tech’s team revealed it had sent the admin and ownership of its smart contracts to Ethereum’s null address “to prevent any changes to their fees or functionality in the future.”

Per the post, the change won’t affect the “separate web client operated at friend.tech which will continue as is.” Additionally, fees from the smart contracts or the platform are not going to the developer team’s multisig.

Following the news, the project’s community shared their discontent, expressing their disbelief about the decision. A community member called the team’s recent actions “The best display of WORST LEADERSHIP ever in crypto history.”

Meanwhile, others questioned whether the decision was “the final nails in the coffin, or ribbons on a present?” Investor’s doubt was founded in May when the project’s airdrop presented several issues.

However, distrust was cemented when the platform announced it would build its blockchain, “Friendchain,” in June. After the backlash, Friend.tech announced it had abandoned the project in a now-deleted post. This decision dragged its token’s price down by over 35% in July.

crypto, ETH, ETHUSDT — Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $2,311 in the three-day chart. Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView

Crypto Whale Investment Drops 94%

Since the news dropped, FRIEND’s price decreased by 42%. The cryptocurrency plummeted from the $0.102 mark to the $0.0593 level over the weekend. On Monday morning, the crash drove the token’s price to its ATL of $0.0574, nearly a 98% drop from its all-time high (ATH) of $3.26.

As the token hit its lowest price, a crypto investor saw its investment nosedive over 95%. Blockchain research platform Spotonchain revealed that a whale had lost over $15 million on its FRIEND holdings.

Per the report, Taiwanese personality Machi Big Brother was a “hard-core bull” on the platform’s token. The whale was at nearly $16 million in realized and unrealized losses after spending around $18 million worth of ETH to acquire FRIEND tokens.

Machi bought 15.99 million FRIEND tokens between May 9 and August 13 at an average price of $1.125. The trader also accumulated FRIEND by providing liquidity on BunnySwap during this period.

Crypto — Whale sees over $15 million in losses. Source: Spotonchain

As the token’s value declined over the months, the investor sold around 5.26 million tokens to cut loss. At the time, the sale was worth $2.27 million at an average token price of $0.431, representing a 61.7% realized loss.

Machi’s remaining 11.1 million FRIEND tokens had a 94.5% unrealized loss, worth $11.4 million. At the time of the report, the whale’s holdings were worth around $689,000.

The cryptocurrency has recovered 32% from its ATL, briefly hitting the $0.09 mark earlier today, according to Coingecko data. As of this writing, FRIEND is trading at $0.0761, a 2.1% surge in the last 24 hours.

Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Rubmar Garcia

Rubmar is a writer and translator who has been a crypto enthusiast for the past four years. Her goal as a writer is to create informative, complete, and easily understandable pieces accessible to those entering the crypto space. After learning about cryptocurrencies in 2019, Rubmar became curious about the world of possibilities the industry offered, quickly learning that financial freedom was at the palm of her hand with the developing technology.

From a young age, Rubmar was curious about how languages work, finding special interest in wordplay and the peculiarities of dialects. Her curiosity grew as she became an avid reader in her teenage years. She explored freedom and new words through her favorite books, which shaped her view of the world. Rubmar acquired the necessary skills for in-depth research and analytical thinking at university, where she studied Literature and Linguistics. Her studies have given her a sharp perspective on several topics and allowed her to turn every stone in her investigations.

In 2019, she first dipped her toes in the crypto industry when a friend introduced her to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but it wasn’t until 2020 that she started to dive into the depth of the industry. As Rubmar began to understand the mechanics of the crypto sphere, she saw a new world yet to be explored.

At the beginning of her crypto voyage, she discovered a new system that allowed her to have control over her finances. As a young adult of the 21st century, Rubmar has faced the challenges of the traditional banking system and the restrictions of fiat money.

After the failure of her home country’s economy, the limitations of traditional finances became clear. The bureaucratic, outdated structure made her feel hopeless and powerless amid an aggressive and distorted system created by hyperinflation. However, learning about decentralization and self-custody opened a realm of opportunities. Cryptocurrencies allowed her to experience financial control for the first time and expand her financial education.

Moreover, the peculiar nature of the crypto community sparked Rubmar’s curiosity about the other layers of the industry. As a result, she found a particular interest in discovering the diverse perspectives of investors, market watchers, experts, and developers. Her attempts to better understand the crypto space made her realize the strong links of the community with other industries, enriching her perspective of the sector. As someone who spends most of her day online, Rubmar enjoys finding the points where the crypto world meets with her other passions and hobbies –or her favorite memes.

In her free time, she usually finds joy in different art forms. As a child, she enlisted in every extra-curricular activity in her hometown, including music classes, dancing, jewelry making, and the local chorus. Despite her many attempts to learn different instruments, Rubmar only knows how to play the xylophone, which she played for 7 years in her school’s marching band.

She also has a passion for learning new languages and cultures, having set the goal to learn another six languages – currently attempting to learn Italian and Korean. Scrapbooking, paper crafting, and bookbinding are her biggest interests outside of work, constantly taking classes and attending workshops to learn new techniques. The rest of her free time is spent stressing over football matches and transfer market news or feeding cats –hers or stray.

In summary, Rubmar seeks to present entertaining and educational pieces to be enjoyed by everybody, aiming to report on the latest news and offer a unique perspective while adding a meme or a pun whenever possible.

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