On Sept. 8, the crew behind the decentralized social media protocol Pal.Tech transferred management of its sensible contract to Ethereum’s null deal with, successfully relinquishing management of the undertaking one yr after its profitable launch.
In a social media put up on X, the crew acknowledged:
“Admin and possession parameters have been set to 0x000…000 to forestall any adjustments to their charges or performance sooner or later.”
Regardless of this, the net shopper at Pal.Tech will proceed to function as normal. The crew additionally clarified, “No charges from both the sensible contracts or Pal.Tech presently go to the dev crew multisig.”
Following the announcement, the platform’s native token FRIEND plummeted by over 47% in 24 hours, reaching an all-time low of $0.06026, in accordance with CryptoSlate information at press time.
Whereas the crew has not offered a transparent motive for this transfer, CryptoSlate’s evaluation of on-chain information highlights the platform’s steep decline in reputation.
Friendtech’s decline
Pal.Tech, launched in August final yr on Coinbase’s Layer 2 community Base, initially gained fast traction within the crypto group.
By September 2023, the protocol’s every day earnings surpassed Ethereum’s, and its prime keys fetched excessive costs. Across the interval, the platform additionally raised an undisclosed seed spherical from crypto VC agency Paradigm.
Nevertheless, the hype light because the platform struggled to keep up momentum. It confronted a number of challenges, together with sim swap assaults and mismanaged plans to exit the Base blockchain.
These points contributed to a pointy decline in consumer engagement. Dune Analytics information reveals the platform’s transaction quantity dropped by 99%, and by September, it was failing to draw new customers.


This decline inadvertently severely impacted income, which fell to simply $21 over the past 30 days, in accordance with DeFillama information. Throughout the identical interval, the platform generated lower than $10,000 in charges.
Crypto group reacts
Pal.Tech’s downfall drew widespread criticism from the crypto group, significantly relating to the crew’s dealing with of the undertaking.
Calvin Chu, a core builder at Unimaginable Finance, voiced his disappointment, saying, “Pal.Tech had develop into extra of a lab experiment than a real social finance undertaking.” He additional expressed frustration over being “rugged” by the choice to close down future upgradeability, which, in his view, ended any hope for additional growth.
Equally, Mikko Ohtamaa, the CEO of Buying and selling Technique, added that Pal.Tech was a primary instance of monetizing hype and rapidly cashing out.