Finally Taken Over: Cryptocurrency Start-up TRON Acquires BitTorrent, Pays Millions

The China based Cryptocurrency startup TRON takes over one of most leading P2P file sharing platform BitTorrent for $140 million. The acquisition was wrapped up last week, according to a report appeared on technology website TechCrunch.

Currently, BitTorrent has 170 million users of its products across the globe.

TRON will be looking forward to utilize the BitTorrent’s technology to legitimize its business. Potentially, TRON could use the P2P architecture to build up a mining network.

However, it will be interesting to see how TRON would capitalize and make use of the services given its aspirations to decentralize content distribution for the digital entertainment industry.

TRON is one of the new players on the block in the field of blockchain startups. The startup is founded by Justin Sun, who was a former employee of Ripple (a settlement system built on Blockchain tech). Tron has created its own cryptocurrency, TRX, loosely, appears to be a cryptocoin for the entertainment industry. 

Mr Sun reportedly began pursuing acquisition of BitTorrent last September under a “no shop” clause that prevented BitTorrent from engaging in similar talks with other potential buyers, as per a report published on Coindesk website.

On May 25 this year, word got out that this clause had been violated by BitTorrent and that Mr Sun had filed legal paperwork to sue. Fast forward to today, when news was broken by Variety, a weekly American entertainment trade magazine, of a merger between a registered company called Rainberry Acquisition Inc. owned by Sun and Rainberry Inc, the actual company owning BitTorrent, the website reported.