Social finance apps Tomo and New Bitcoin City break above $1 million in TVL

Social finance protocols Tomo and New Bitcoin City now have more than $1 million locked in each of their smart contracts, a figure known as total value locked, per DefiLlama.

Both protocols are similar projects to Base-based FriendTech, the first mover in an emerging space that's leveraging a specific blend of social media with a financial twist. FriendTech popularized the idea of having gated communities where users need to pay for so-called keys to access group chats, with the price of the keys getting more expensive each time one is bought.

Innovating with new social finance ideas

Running on the Linea platform, Tomo offers a few different things compared to FriendTech, such as the ability to message someone directly. But the main aspect that makes Tomo different is that it lets users bet on the value of people's keys, if they were they to join the platform. Tesla CEO Elon Musk's keys, for instance, are currently valued at 0.478 ETH ($743), and that's the price they would start trading at if he were to join the platform. 

Based on Bitcoin Layer 2 network NOS, New Bitcoin City is taking a slightly different approach from most social finance platforms by trying to be more of a social layer, allowing users from other protocols like FriendTech to use their keys on its app.

New Bitcoin City has added a few levels of customization, including the ability to set the fee that a group chat owner charges for the purchase of their keys (between 0-8%) and the number of keys needed to access their group chat. It also lets users agree to buy each other's keys for a period of 30 days, a process referred to as (3,3).

These two projects are currently the only social finance platforms with more than $1 million in TVL other than FriendTech, which still dominates with $43.7 million. Avalanche-based StarsArena had more than $1 million in TVL before it was hacked. It's set to reopen today with trading to start at a later date.