Farm Frens Faces Issues with FREN Token Launch

Popular Telegram game Farm Frens acknowledged errors in its FREN token launch on the Ethereum layer-2 network, Base, earlier this week, and outlined future steps to restore trust among players and investors.

The FREN token was meant to be claimable for eligible participants following a January 20 snapshot, but the team encountered significant technical difficulties during the token generation event (TGE). This included problems with token allocations, claiming, staking, and a new feature called Frensurance that taxed transferred airdrop claims.

> “Dear Frens, we fucked up. We know many of you looked forward to our TGE, and we let you down.” – Farm Frens on X (formerly Twitter)

To clarify the situation, the project founder, Kaizen, published a post detailing:
1. What went wrong
2. The rationale behind Frensurance
3. Tokenomics and listing plans
4. Future roadmap

A detailed explanation of the errors was provided, emphasizing issues with token claims which disrupted some users from receiving their allocations. Kaizen acknowledged that the effort to subsidize gas fees for airdrop claims backfired due to slower mainnet performance compared to successful local tests.

“To our dismay, users experienced claim errors, leading to mixed success; some succeeded while others failed,” Kaizen explained. The project claims to have resolved these issues and offers a contact form for those still facing claiming problems.

“We deeply apologize for these technical issues. While some suggested this was intentional, I assure you it was not,” Kaizen continued.

Initially scheduled for January, the FREN launch was delayed due to Telegram’s exclusivity deal with The Open Network (TON), necessitating any games or apps on Telegram to transition to TON or remove blockchain functionality.

Though TON operates separately from Telegram, it originated within Telegram before being abandoned in 2020 over regulatory issues. Since late 2023, Telegram has renewed ties with the community-led TON.

In response, Farm Frens revamped its roadmap, planning to create a standalone wallet and expand to new platforms, including the Line messaging app, popular in Japan. The updated product roadmap hints at launching a new season of in-game content alongside its Line launch in Q2.

As of now, FREN has dropped 9% in the last 24 hours, with a current market cap of $1.5 million.

Edited by Andrew Hayward