Web3 social network Friend.tech’s native token FRIEND surged more than 1,500% today. The rally followed a $1 million buyout offer from Machi Big Brother.

The proposal targets a social app whose original team relinquished control over its smart contracts roughly 2 years ago. 

Why Is FRIEND Token Up Today?

Friend.tech launched on Base in 2023 and peaked fast. The platform’s token opened up for trading in May 2024. 

FRIEND hit an all-time high of $3.26 on May 3, 2024, per CoinGecko. BeInCrypto reported that in September, the founding team transferred the admin and ownership parameters to a null address. 

The wider SocialFi sector had already thinned out by then. Farcaster, Lens, and Friend.tech all shed users through late 2024.

FRIEND kept sliding and hit an all-time low of $0.00002225 in July 2026. It now trades near $0.051 after Thursday’s 1,590% jump.

Market cap climbed to $4.89 million, up from under $300,000. The altcoin’s trading volume hit $5,627,502 over 24 hours, a 100,823.30% jump from the previous day.

Machi Big Brother Offers $1M for Friend.tech

The surge in activity can be traced to an offer from Machi Big Brother, the pseudonym of Taiwanese-American high-profile trader Jeffrey Huang. In an X post, Huang offered to buy out Friend.tech for $1 million. He described a narrow scope for the deal.

“I just need the X account and URL,” he said.

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Huang had previously taken a significant position in FRIEND, linking him closely to the token’s fortunes. He bought 11 million FRIEND for roughly 5,200 Ethereum (ETH), according to Lookonchain. His holdings were worth about $500,000 after the token’s collapse.

“He has lost over $16M on FRIEND,” Lookonchain noted.

On-chain data also shows he sent all 11 million tokens to wallet 0x3205 five days earlier. The bid arrives while Machi runs heavy leverage elsewhere. 

The trader is well known for his highly leveraged trades and frequent liquidations. Arkham puts his portfolio at $12.06 million, with $11.61 million in open positions.

He holds a 24,100 ETH long at 25x leverage and a 499 BTC long at 40x leverage. A 199,000 HYPE long at 10 times rounds out the book.

Those three trades carry a combined notional value of nearly $117 million. They show $2.5 million in unrealized profit, while his all-time profit and loss (PNL) sits at negative $24.72 million.

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Source: BeInCrypto