FaZe Banks Joins Friend.tech, Sparking Platform's Explosive 100,000-User Milestone

When esports legend FaZe Banks stepped onto Friend.tech in late August 2023, few could have predicted the shockwave his arrival would create. Within hours, his share prices became among the most expensive on the platform, signaling a turning point in the fledgling social network’s trajectory. What had launched just weeks earlier as a niche Web3 experiment was suddenly attracting mainstream celebrities and athletes at an unprecedented pace.

Friend.tech, a novel social platform built on blockchain technology that allows users to purchase “shares” in their favorite content creators and influencers from X (formerly Twitter), hit a remarkable milestone: over 100,000 wallet addresses joined the platform since its August 2023 launch. The growth trajectory defied market expectations, particularly striking given the challenging bear market conditions that typically dampen crypto adoption. Data aggregated by Yearn Finance developer @Bantg and corroborated by Dune Analytics dashboard revealed at least 80,000 unique users had engaged with the platform, with 15,000 newcomers arriving in a single week alone.

Celebrity Boost Drives Rapid Adoption

The influx of mainstream personalities transformed Friend.tech from a crypto curiosity into a social phenomenon. Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson II, co-founder of the legendary esports organization FaZe Clan, became one of the earliest celebrity adopters, and his participation immediately validated the platform in the eyes of mainstream users. NBA player Grayson Allen similarly saw his share prices accelerate the moment he joined, demonstrating that professional athletes recognized the platform’s unique value proposition.

These high-profile endorsements created a compounding effect: the more recognizable names that joined, the more attractive the platform became to ordinary users eager to gain access to their favorite celebrities. Share ownership granted tangible benefits—holders could send private messages to content creators, creating an intimate layer of engagement that traditional social networks couldn’t replicate. For users accustomed to parasocial relationships with distant celebrities, this was a game-changer.

Revenue Surges Alongside User Growth

The financial metrics painted an equally compelling picture. Friend.tech generated over $25 million in total fees since its launch, establishing itself as one of the most lucrative platforms to debut in 2023 despite the bear market backdrop. Within just 24 hours of the platform’s August surge, it accumulated over $1.04 million in fees—a 5% cut taken from each transaction on share purchases.

Converting those transaction fees to actual protocol revenue, Friend.tech banked approximately $709,000 worth of Ether after covering gas fees and operational costs, according to DefiLlama’s tracking. This revenue model, powered entirely by user activity rather than external funding, demonstrated that the market genuinely valued what Friend.tech was offering—the ability to monetize social influence in real time.

Share Trading Dynamics and Platform Mechanics

The mechanics underlying Friend.tech’s appeal were straightforward yet novel. When users purchased shares of another person’s account, they weren’t buying traditional equity or governance tokens. Instead, they were acquiring social privileges and a bet on that person’s continued relevance and platform activity. The share price fluctuated based on demand, creating a speculative element that attracted traders and casual users alike.

FaZe Banks’ early adoption became a bellwether. His share price volatility attracted trading activity, and his presence lured other esports personalities and gaming influencers who recognized an opportunity to monetize their communities directly. The esports sector, already accustomed to parasocial engagement through streaming and social platforms, proved to be fertile ground for Friend.tech’s growth model.

Privacy and Security Concerns Emerge

Despite the platform’s explosive growth, early users flagged significant privacy vulnerabilities. A GitHub repository temporarily published by @Bantg exposed the direct correlation between crypto wallet addresses and X (Twitter) accounts. While the repository was quickly withdrawn, the incident raised uncomfortable questions about user anonymity in the blockchain ecosystem.

Some security researchers dismissed the concerns, arguing that for technically sophisticated users, linking Twitter handles to deposit addresses was inevitable. However, others pointed out that Friend.tech should have been more explicit about this trade-off during onboarding. An additional concern surfaced when @Bantg suggested that users had implicitly granted Friend.tech permission to post on X on their behalf—a potential attack vector if the platform’s security were compromised.

Platform Trajectory and Market Implications

Friend.tech’s rapid ascent during a bear market challenged conventional wisdom about crypto adoption cycles. The platform demonstrated that even in adverse market conditions, compelling product innovation could drive user acquisition at scale. The combination of celebrity adoption, novel mechanics, and speculative trading created a feedback loop that sustained growth week after week.

The platform’s success with mainstream personalities like FaZe Banks signaled a maturation in how social influence was monetized. Rather than relying on traditional advertising or sponsorship models, content creators could now capture direct economic value from their audience’s engagement through share trading. Whether this model would sustain long-term remained an open question, but for Friend.tech’s early trajectory, the answer was unambiguous: explosive growth that defied bear market headwinds.