The pioneer of file sharing in torrent mode, BitTorrent, has been sold. The buyer is Justin Sun, an entrepreneur in the blockchain industry known for the Tron platform and its TRX cryptocurrency. The deal was concluded last week. The management of BitTorrent then informed the staff of the transaction.
Financing side, the amount of the transaction is not known. The total market capitalization of TRX cryptocurrency is currently approximately $ 4.78 billion, of which $ 1.65 billion is held by the Sun Tron Foundation.
Justin Sun announces that it wants to build a "decentralized Internet" that allows developers to build blockchain applications. It is unclear exactly how Tron plans to integrate BitTorrent.
Last avatar of the long and tumultuous history
This agreement is the last avatar of the long and tumultuous history of BitTorrent. The company raised millions of dollars ten years ago to build an entertainment business based on the P2P protocol. These plans failed. And BitTorrent has been forced to fire a large part of its staff. And to recapitalize in 2008.
In the following years, BitTorrent expanded its business with ads reaching 150 million active users per month.
In 2016, two outside investors acquired one of the initial investor's shares in the company. These investors have not only secured seats on the BitTorrent board, but have also briefly become co-CEOs of the company and have led an expensive expansion (read: BitTorrent is coming to iOS to make P2P streaming ). Including the opening of a production site in Los Angeles. These efforts ultimately failed. The two CEOs were fired the same year , and the company closed its studio and media activities. BitTorrent also closed its streaming activity last year.