Users are able to buy “keys” of other users X (Twitter) accounts. By owning a “key” the user gets access to a private chat with the person whose “key” one owns. When a “key” of a users account is traded the user earns a commission (supply-side fees).

friend.tech is a crypto native social media application built on Base. friend.tech was founded by pseudonymous developers known as Racer and Shrimp and launched in 2023.

friend.tech team and investors own the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total trading volume (revenue). friend.tech’s investors include Paradigm.

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friend.tech

# friend.tech Fees Methodology

## 1. Overview

The Friend.tech fees metric measures the total daily fees generated across both versions of the Friend.tech social trading protocol. This includes protocol fees, creator fees from V1, and protocol fees, best friend fees, and referral fees from V2. The metric combines fee revenues from WETH-based trading on V1 and FRIEND token-based club trading on V2, converting all amounts to USD for standardized reporting.

## 2. Data sources

- **Base chain event logs**: Parsed `Trade` events from Friend.tech V1 contract containing ETH amounts and fee breakdowns
- **Base chain event logs**: Parsed `Buy` and `Sell` events from Friend.tech V2 Clubs contract with FRIEND token amounts and protocol fees
- **Base chain function calls**: `changeBestFriendFee` and `changeProtocolFee` function calls that update V2 fee rates over time
- **Base chain transaction data**: Transaction records to identify user addresses for V2 trades
- **External price data**: End-of-day WETH price feeds from Ethereum for V1 fee conversion
- **External price data**: End-of-day FRIEND token price feeds from CoinGecko for V2 fee conversion (used due to FRIEND token being non-transferable)

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: V1 protocol and creator fees
- **Purpose**: Calculate total fees from Friend.tech V1 social trading
- **Logic**: Extract `Trade` events from the V1 contract on Base chain. Each event contains `ethAmount` (total trade volume), `protocolEthAmount` (protocol fee), and `subjectEthAmount` (creator fee). Sum protocol and creator fees for each trade. Convert WETH amounts from wei to standard units by dividing by 1e18. Join with end-of-day WETH price feeds to convert to USD. Group by day and sum all fee amounts. Set chain as Ethereum for price feed compatibility despite trades occurring on Base.
- **Key fields**: `protocolEthAmount` and `subjectEthAmount` summed as total fees, `ethAmount` as trade volume, `subject` as creator address

### Component B: V2 club trading fees  
- **Purpose**: Calculate multi-component fees from Friend.tech V2 club system
- **Logic**: Extract `Buy` and `Sell` events from V2 Clubs contract containing `pointsIn`/`pointsOut` (trade volumes) and `protocolFee` amounts. Join each trade with time-based fee rate dimensions to get applicable `protocol_fee_rate` and `best_friend_fee_rate` at trade timestamp. For buy trades, calculate `tokens_in` as `volume_amount_total / (1 + protocol_fee_rate + best_friend_fee_rate)`. For sell trades, use `volume_amount_total / (1 - protocol_fee_rate - best_friend_fee_rate)`. Calculate `best_friend_fee` as `tokens_in * best_friend_fee_rate`. Derive `referral_fee` as residual: for buys `volume_amount_total - (tokens_in + best_friend_fee + protocol_fee_amount)`, for sells `tokens_in - (volume_amount_total + best_friend_fee + protocol_fee_amount)`. Convert FRIEND token amounts using CoinGecko end-of-day prices.
- **Key fields**: `pointsIn`/`pointsOut` as volumes, `protocolFee` as direct protocol fee, calculated `best_friend_fee` and `referral_fee`

### Component C: Dynamic fee rate tracking
- **Purpose**: Track changing fee rates over time for V2 calculations
- **Logic**: Parse `changeBestFriendFee` and `changeProtocolFee` function calls to extract `newFee` values divided by 1e18. Create time intervals using lead window functions to determine when each fee rate is valid. Join trades to applicable fee rates based on trade timestamp falling within the rate's valid time range.
- **Key fields**: `newFee` values converted to rates, `block_timestamp` ranges for rate validity

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: Union V1 fees (protocol + creator) with V2 fees (protocol + best friend + referral) into a single fee stream. Both components are pre-converted to USD.
- **Currency conversion**: V1 uses Ethereum end-of-day WETH price feeds. V2 uses CoinGecko end-of-day FRIEND token prices due to the token being non-transferable and lacking reliable DEX pricing.
- **Time aggregation**: Truncate all trade timestamps to daily boundaries and sum fee amounts by day.
- **Final calculation**: Sum all fee components by day across both protocol versions. Apply chain availability filtering to ensure data completeness. Use fill-zeros strategy for missing days to maintain consistent time series.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Total value users pay to use a protocol (gross fees, user-paid fees).

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Fees

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Competitive landscape