On January 28, 2019, the BitTorrent token (BTT) sale took place on the Binance Launchpad, selling nearly 60 billion BTT in under 15 minutes and netting the BitTorrent team $7 billion. The BTT token sale is now considered to be the most successful ICO in 2019 and the biggest token sale on Binance Launchpad to date.
The BitTorrent Token (BTT)
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing protocol that allows users to distribute files such as music, books, games, videos, and more over the internet. BitTorrent is the largest file-sharing protocol in the world, with over 150 million active users.
In July of 2018, Tron’s CEO, Justin Sun, acquired BitTorrent for $120 million and quickly initiated project Atlas, which led to the creation of the BitTorrent token (BTT). The BTT token will be used in BitTorrent’s new file sharing system called BitTorrent Speed.
The BTT token will be used to incentivize users to upload or seed files, which will result in faster download speeds. Users downloading files can pay the seeders (uploaders) in BTT and receive faster download speeds as a result.
Therefore, unlike many other cryptocurrencies and tokens on the market, the BTT token will have an actual use case right off the bat when the new BitTorrent Speed file-sharing platform purportedly launches this summer.
BTT Token Sale: How Much, How Fast, How Did It Go?
Per an announcement from Binance, the BTT tokens were available for a fixed rate of 1 BTT = 0.00001824 BNB (using a BNB price of $6.58 USD) and 1 BTT = 0.00447261 TRX (using a TRX price of $0.02683 USD).
According to Binance’s published blog post on the sale, 23.76 billion BTT were sold within 13 minutes and 25 seconds for BNB, and 35.64 billion BTT were sold within 14 minutes and 41 seconds for TRX, netting the BitTorrent team $7 million within 15 minutes.
According to the stats, the BTT token sale was very successful. However, during the token sale, Binance suffered technical issues due to the overwhelming participation.
A significant number of people took to Twitter and social media, complaining that were unable to buy BTT tokens, as all they could see were error pages. Some people even accused Binance of foul play and manipulation.
However, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was quick to address the issue, apologizing on Twitter and stating that the error pages were caused by technical issues due to astronomical traffic.
Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron also addressed the issue, suggesting that everyone who experienced errors receive some free BTT because of their missed opportunity in the token sale:
I would like to explore the possibility with @binance to giveaway free $BTT to everyone on launchpad fails to get #BTT today. #BitTorrent community wants you! Not 100% guarantee. Need to figure out detail. BUT RT if you agree! @cz_binance #TRON $BNB $TRX
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) January 28, 2019
CZ appeared to be on the same page:
Due to overwhelming demands, Tron team generously agreed to do a small airdrop for people who tried to place orders, but was not successful in buying. Exact numbers will be published soon.
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 28, 2019
After the BitTorrent Token Sale
Following BitTorrent’s ICO, the BitTorrent foundation will reward Tron (TRX) holders with BitTorrent tokens (BTT) over the course of a 6-year airdrop plan. The Foundation will also distribute BTT during online and offline events in the years to come.
The total supply of airdropped BTT tokens following the BTT token sale will account for 10.1% of the total circulating supply. The first airdrop is set for February 11, 2019, and will continue every month until 2025.
Moreover, directly following the BitTorrent token sale, both TRX and BNB plunged with the rest of the crypto market as Bitcoin and the overall cryptocurrency market experienced another massive sell-off, with nearly $7 billion dumped in a few hours.
