Friktion Labs
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Friktion was a Solana-based decentralized finance platform offering structured investment products called Volts, which let investors earn a share of revenue from DeFi investment pools. It reached nearly 20,000 user wallets, over $3 billion in traded volume and $160 million in total value locked in the first half of 2022. The company raised $5.5 million in January 2022 from Jump Crypto, DeFiance Capital, Delphi Ventures, Solana Ventures and Tribe Capital.
02 / Friktion Labs FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
after navigating Luna/FTX/network outages, team said DeFi growth was tough and costs had outpaced revenue, driving the decision to sunset the user platform.
Company stated costs outpaced revenue.
Company cited a tough DeFi market after Luna, FTX, and network outages.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product or service closed
Friktion official blog 27 Jan 2023: sunsetting user platform; Volts moved withdrawal-only from 25 Jan 2023; deposits disabled; users urged to withdraw.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In January 2022 Friktion raised $5.5 million from Jump Crypto, DeFiance Capital, Delphi Ventures, Solana Ventures and Tribe Capital.
- 02
The platform reached nearly 20,000 wallets, $3 billion in traded volume and $160 million TVL in the first half of 2022, but was hit by the crypto winter after surviving Luna and FTX.
- 03
On January 26-27, 2023, Friktion announced it would sunset its user platform, moving all Volts to withdrawal-only mode and urging customers to withdraw assets.
- 04
No reliable loss figure with a clear subject, period and basis exists, so no loss amount is recorded.