Tron Bought BitTorrent And Crypto Won't Stop Talking

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

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First leaked last week, more details emerged Tuesday on how Justin Sun, the founder of a controversial cryptocurrency project called Tron, is acquiring the file-sharing service BitTorrent for as much as $140 million.

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.

On May 25, word got out that this clause had been violated by BitTorrent and that Sun had filed legal paperwork to sue.

Fast forward to today, when news was broken by Variety of a merger between a registered company called Rainberry Acquisition Inc. owned by Sun and Rainberry Inc, the actual company owning BitTorrent.

Beyond the speculation over how negotiations for the acquisition of BitTorrent actually went down behind the scenes, critics have questioned the strategic motivation of even purchasing BitTorrent's file-sharing services in the first place.

For one, the technology behind the services BitTorrent offers is entirely open-source and available for public view.

Some have been suggesting that what Sun is going after with this acquisition is not BitTorrent's services per say but rather the established platform BitTorrent possesses from which to create entirely new services.

Others feel that the speculation is unnecessary given the sheer reach of BitTorrent around the globe servicing millions of users each day.

For now, it seems Sun is content with staying tight-lipped about potential next steps for Tron as it relates to BitTorrent.

"Regarding how we can unite with BitTorrent, I will keep it secret first. In July, we will have some activities with BitTorrent, please pay attention to that, thank you."

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