May 5th, 2024

Biggest Friend.tech whale dumps tokens as users struggle to claim airdrop

The largest airdrop recipient on Friend.tech has sold all their tokens just hours after the airdrop, leading to concerns over the token’s price action.

Just hours after the Friend.tech airdrop went live on May 3, the largest whale, known as “Murphys1d,” sold over 55,000 of the newly-issued Friend tokens, blockchain data shows.

Beyond the sell-off, some users were unable to claim their airdrop tokens, including crypto investor Luke Martin, who wrote in a May 3 X post:

“Watching the value of my airdrop go from 7 figures to 5 figures in the span of 2 hours while I keep refreshing the page trying to claim….still can’t claim. Adds insult to injury.”

Martin added that the whale wallet seems to be linked to a fake X account with no activity, enabling it to farm over 500,000 Friend.tech points risk-free.

The new Friend.tech (FRIEND) token has fallen over 52.5% since its launch, from $3.26 to just $1.32 as of 9:50 am UTC. The token’s price fell over 32% in the last hour before publication, according to CoinGecko data.

While the selling by the largest Friend.tech whale may impact the market in the short term, it doesn’t necessarily dictate a token’s long-term trajectory, according to Anndy Lian, intergovernmental blockchain expert and author of NFT: From Zero to Hero. Lian told Cointelegraph:

“While it might cause a short-term dip in price due to increased supply and potential panic selling, it doesn’t always mean a long-term downtrend. To me, it is a good thing […] The sell-off would mean a more decentralized distribution of tokens. A broader distribution reduces the risk of a single entity having excessive control over the project.”

However, Lian noted that the token’s value will mainly rely on the community’s trust in Friend.tech and how the team manages the current situation.

Airdrop farmers continue to plague token launches

The mysterious Friend.tech whale is another example of a professional airdrop farmer (squatter) who interacts with emerging protocols solely for the airdrop rewards, often with multiple wallets to compound rewards.

The main issue with airdrop farmers is that they tend to market sell all their airdropped tokens, creating significant sell pressure and resulting in more panic selling by legitimate protocol users.

An example of this came at the end of April, when the Omni Network’s OMNI token fell 55% in less than 18 hours following its airdrop, losing over half its market capitalization.

In March 2023, it was revealed that airdrop hunters consolidated $3.3 million worth of tokens from Arbitrum’s ARB airdrop from 1,496 wallets into just two wallets they had controlled.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/friend-tech-airdrop-largest-recipient-sells-tokens

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May 4th, 2024

Biomedcentral: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

Currently, a major application of blockchain technology and smart contracts is in finance, with the issuing of cryptocurrencies as well as the introduction of “DeFi” (decentralized finance) [13], blockchain applications that feature complex financial use cases. High-profile figures in the blockchain industry, such as Anndy Lian [14], intergovernmental blockchain adviser, believe that DeFi has a role in the future financial markets, especially because with DeFi, “anybody can apply for a loan”, with no need for a bank or credit checks, just a digital wallet and a crypto asset as collateral [15]. Although the major use case for blockchain technology is currently in finance, we strongly believe that such technology can bring disruptive innovation to the biomedical research field as well, and its potential applications and use cases in science have been largely underestimated.

Source: https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-024-02498-z

PDF: s12911-024-02498-z

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May 3rd, 2024

EigenLayer sees over 12,000 queued withdrawals — How far will TVL fall?

EigenLayer — the largest Ethereum restaking protocol — has received over 12,412 withdrawal requests following widespread disappointment surrounding its planned EIGEN airdrop.

Mass withdrawal requests started on April 29, when EigenLayer saw over 4,336 daily withdrawals, rising to 6,496 on April 30, according to Dune data.

*Daily EigenLayer withdrawal queue count. Source:* *Dune*

The restaking protocol amassed over 12,412 withdrawals in the past three days, which started on April 29 after EigenLayer released a white paper on its EIGEN token. However, several jurisdictions were excluded from the airdrop, including the United States, Canada and several African and Asian countries.

EigenLayer has over 107,000 unique depositors, according to Dune. In the past three days, the 12,412 withdrawals suggest that 11.6% of unique depositors have withdrawn from the protocol.

While the size of the individual withdrawals can’t yet be traced, the 11.6% of queued withdrawals would reduce EigenLayer’s current $14.8 billion total value locked (TVL) to just above $13 billion.

Since EigenLayer has a seven-day withdrawal processing period, the effects of the mass withdrawals will only become visible in the following weeks.

The ban of key economic jurisdictions from the EigenLayer airdrop has caused widespread disappointment that will affect the protocol’s TVL, according to Anndy Lian, intergovernmental blockchain expert and author of NFT: From Zero to Hero. He told Cointelegraph:

“Participants from these regions might have contributed significantly to EigenLayer’s TVL. Their exclusion could lead to a decrease in the overall TVL, especially if they were actively restaking their assets.”

Airdrop farmers are searching for new restaking protocols

EigenLayer’s TVL fell over 4% during the past week, while Karak’s TVL rose 20.5% to $439 million, making it the second-biggest restaking protocol on Ethereum, according to DefiLlama.

The new restaking protocol’s rapid growth led to speculation that Karak has a “good chance” of becoming the next EigenLayer, following the EIGEN airdrop debacle.

Beyond the disappointing airdrop, Karak also introduces technical benefits to users while offering more flexible restaking tokens, according to Lian:

“Karak introduces unique technical features such as multi-asset restaking and a plug-and-play development environment. These could provide Karak with an edge in attracting developers and users seeking a more versatile restaking platform.”

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/eigenlayer-12-000-queued-withdrawals-how-far-tvl-fall

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