FRIEND token surges 1,600% as Machi Big Brother proposes $1M takeover

FRIEND rose more than 1,600% to near $0.06 on Aug. 27 after Machi Big Brother proposed a $1 million takeover of the dormant Friend.tech project.

Machi Big Brother, the Taiwanese-American trader also known as Jeffrey Huang, wrote on X that Friend.tech was trading at less than $300,000 in market capitalization before making his offer. "I'm offering a 1 mil usd buyout offer to Racer and @paradigm. We can CTO relaunch $FRIEND," he wrote.

CoinGecko data shows FRIEND traded as low as $0.0025 during the previous 24 hours and reached roughly $0.10 at its high. Trading volume climbed to about $5.3 million over 24 hours, a 94,831% increase from the previous day. The asset jumped more than 2,600% from a week ago and almost 3,400% in 14 days.

Machi previously spent about 5,200 ETH, worth $16.7 million at the time, to acquire around 11 million FRIEND, according to Lookonchain. Those tokens were worth only about $500,000 when Lookonchain posted, leaving Machi with a loss exceeding $16 million. Lookonchain also noted that Machi transferred the 11 million coins to wallet 0x3205 five days before announcing his $1 million offer. Machi rejected any suggestion that he had sold the tokens, describing the receiving address as his "new fomo wallet."

Friend.tech launched on Base in August 2023, allowing users to trade access to influencers' feeds. Activity weakened considerably after its early success. In September 2024, the development team transferred control of Friend.tech's smart contract to Ethereum's null address, preventing future changes to fee or functionality. Platform revenues had fallen dramatically, with reported fees reaching as little as $71.

FRIEND remains over 98% below its all-time high of $3.26 from May 2024, even after Wednesday's rally. The token's market capitalization was below $300,000 before Machi's proposal, making the $1 million offer larger than the project's entire valuation.

The proposal puts Friend.tech in an unusual position: a token that had almost disappeared from traders' attention suddenly has millions of dollars in daily turnover, while the person proposing its revival has already lost millions on a past investment. Neither Racer nor Paradigm has publicly confirmed receipt of the offer or opened acquisition talks as of publication.

Machi's broader trading record adds context. Since October 2025, on-chain trackers have logged more than 145 liquidations on Hyperliquid tied to his wallets, with cumulative realized losses on perpetual futures climbing above $77 million by May 2026. In August 2026, he sold a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT at a 75.7% loss to keep a leveraged ETH long open. Lookonchain flagged that his account balance has since grown almost 200 times, with open positions of about 23,350 ETH and 668 BTC, worth roughly $113 million in aggregate.

The near-term question is whether Machi's proposal develops into an actual acquisition discussion. If Racer or Paradigm publicly acknowledges the proposal or opens formal negotiations, the acquisition story could develop further. If the proposal is not pursued and trading activity declines, FRIEND could give back some or all of its recent gains, given its relatively small market capitalization and trading depth.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.