On Thursday, BitTorrent Inc. announced intentions to roll out a blockchain-based token designed to enhance download speeds for its users. The digital asset, branded as BTT, will be minted by the Singa
On Thursday, BitTorrent Inc. announced intentions to roll out a blockchain-based token designed to enhance download speeds for its users. The digital asset, branded as BTT, will be minted by the Singapore-based BitTorrent Foundation and integrated within the Tron ecosystem. Initial rollout targets Windows versions of uTorrent Classic, which represents the company's flagship application.
Justin Sun, leading both Tron and BitTorrent operations, characterized this move as foundational work toward an internet without intermediaries. According to his statement: "BitTorrent token is the first in a series of steps to support a decentralized internet." He elaborated further: "In one giant leap, the BitTorrent client can introduce blockchain to hundreds of millions of users around the world and empower a new generation of content creators with the tools to distribute their content directly to others on the web."
The token will be sold through Binance Launchpad, which just debuted as the exchange's dedicated platform for launching new digital assets—open to non-US residents. Binance's CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao highlighted why his platform selected BitTorrent for its first offering. He stated: "We created Launchpad to help entrepreneurs launch their best projects and bring more use cases to the industry. BitTorrent is a decentralized project by nature, with a large user base, that is now adding a new token economy to their use case. Through Launchpad, BitTorrent will have greater access to resources across the Binance ecosystem. This will be a case study for existing projects."
Tron completed its acquisition of BitTorrent in mid-2018, paying an estimated US$126 million to build what Tron pitched as "the largest decentralized Internet ecosystem in the world."
Headquartered in San Francisco, BitTorrent traces its origins to 2004. The firm operates two primary services: its eponymous file-sharing system and BitTorrent Now, which streams video and audio content. The 2006 acquisition of uTorrent for US$5 million proved instrumental in expanding the company's presence. Today it boasts more than 100 million active users. The underlying BitTorrent Protocol, maintained by the company, functions as the planet's largest decentralized protocol, claimed by roughly 1 billion individuals.
The whitepaper outlining the token's vision describes an ambitious redesign: "We will transform BitTorrent to create an infrastructure platform for building elements of the decentralized web enabling app developers to directly reward consumers who provide the underlying resources, and enabling consumers to use this 'found value' to transact with publishers and app developers directly without involving fiat currency." It concludes with the assertion that "We believe that BitTorrent is by far the closest to being able to introduce the infrastructure to support the coming decentralized web and the economy to support it."
The initiative arrives alongside executive departures. Variety reported that Rogelio Choy, the company's recent CEO, has exited his position. While a company representative stated Choy "decided to pursue other opportunities," industry sources indicate internal disputes regarding strategic direction prompted the departure.
