Coinbase’s Viral Blockchain App, Friend.tech, Keeps Focus on Underlying OP Stack Technology

PRICE OF POPULARITY: Coinbase, the large U.S. crypto alternate, is getting a quick training, as one of many first large publicly traded firms to run its personal blockchain. Its new Base challenge, a layer-2 community atop Ethereum, simply launched this month, and already considered one of its new functions, Buddy.tech, has gone viral, shortly attracting greater than 100,000 customers and producing greater than $25 million in charges. Buddy.tech, which permits customers to buy shares of X (Twitter) influencers, noticed a speedy spike in exercise (see chart above) after saying on Aug. 18 that it had scored seed funding earlier this yr from the crypto-focused venture-capital agency Paradigm. Buddy.tech’s early success has helped drive up key metrics on the Base community, driving its complete worth locked (TVL) previous $200 million and at one level pushing transactions per second above these of Ethereum in addition to rival layer-2 initiatives Arbitrum and Optimism. In line with FundStrat, Base has accrued almost $4 million in charges, $2.5 million of which is retained by Coinbase; it really works out to $30 million further income on an annual foundation. One query is whether or not Base can retain the expansion as soon as this sizzling ball of cash bounces to the subsequent crypto craze. “Buddy.Tech’s speculative nature,” writes Galaxy Analysis, “highlights ongoing questions over Coinbase’s function in moderating a series that right this moment is ‘decentralized’ in identify solely.”