Decentralized social media platform Friend.tech has seen a sudden surge in total value locked (TVL), doubling to reach more than $20 million within the last four days. 

Only two weeks ago, critics declared the platform “dead” after activity on the app appeared to be fizzling out. 

However, activity on Friend.tech has witnessed a significant resurgence over the last few days, with the app witnessing $12.3 million in daily trading volume — the third-highest ever — on Sept. 9, according to data from Dune Analytics.

As the pseudonymous account TylerDidIt pointed out, the Sept. 9 trading volume on Friend.tech eclipsed that of OpenSea, outperforming the NFT platform by more than $3 million on the day.

Pseudonymous crypto account Herro, who is currently the 4th largest account on the app  — told Cointelegraph that they expect friend.tech to stick around for the foreseeable future, or at least until a potential friend.tech token launch in the coming months. 

"I believe FT will stick around up until a token is launched in ~5 mo. Prior to, and after that, its future will depend on the team. I believe they’ll reduce fees, increase creator revenue earned & onboard non-crypto natives in order to succeed," Herro explained. 

While there’s no single reason why the platform saw such a surge, a number of crypto industry heavyweights shared some reasoning for its resurrection.

Prominent trader Hsaka jested that TVL had doubled since users realized that Friend.tech chats were “just yield farms rebranded” — a comment that refers to the potential gain from the 5% fee earned when users buy or sell someone’s “key.”

Another potential reason behind the resurgence of activity on Friend.tech may have something to do with the growing number of non-crypto figures that have joined the platform in recent weeks, including a number of prominent YouTubers and OnlyFans creators.

PancakesBrah, the pseudonymous account in charge of growth and business development at Friend.tech, said this hammers home the point that the platform “isn’t an app for just crypto bros.”

Additionally, the app has shipped a number of updates that have offered improvements to user experience and functionality.

Initially plagued by bugs and various technical errors, the app has added a series of new features, including the ability to upload photos, credit-card-enabled purchase options and new sections to view different types of activity.

Friend.tech launched on Coinbase’s layer-2 Base on Aug. 11, and generated a staggering $5.9 million in fees by its 10th day.

Shortly afterwards however, user activity stalled — daily fees plummeted 87% and transaction volume fell 90% over the course of the next week, causing some to prematurely declare the platform “dead.”

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