"Murphys1d," the largest recipient of the Friend.tech airdrop, sold over 55,000 FRIEND tokens within hours of their airdrop on May 3.
This caused the token's price to drop by 56.8%; at the time of writing, it is valued at $1.16.
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Technical issues also added to the problem, as some legitimate recipients were blocked from claiming their tokens.
Crypto investor Luke Martin shared his frustration on social media, saying:
Watching the value of my airdrop go from 7 figures to 5 figures in two hours while I keep refreshing the page trying to claim....still can't claim. Meanwhile I gotta watch this guy cashout while my wallet won't even load. Adds insult to injury.
Despite these challenges, there may be some potential positive outcomes of this token dump. Anndy Lian, a blockchain expert, suggested that while the sell-off might cause a short-term dip, it could lead to a more decentralized distribution of tokens, adding:
A broader distribution reduces the risk of a single entity having excessive control over the project.
Lian also acknowledged that the token’s future will largely depend on the community’s continued trust and the managing team's response to the situation.
This incident underlines the issue of airdrop farmers, who engage with platforms only to claim airdrops and often create multiple accounts to maximize their gains.
As the Friend.tech team grapples with these issues, the community waits to see how they will address both the technical hurdles that blocked token claims and the broader implications of this market upset.
EigenLayer, an Ethereum restaking protocol, has also recently dealt with issues surrounding the airdrop of its native EIGEN token. Due to community backlash, the protocol decided to increase the airdrop by about 28 million tokens.
