BitTorrent Founder Reveals Final Details on Tron Acquisition

Bram Cohen, founder of peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol BitTorrent, revealed today that Tron CEO Justin Sun paid the last part of the $140 million acquisition deal after all. Well, most of it at least.

“After much sabre-rattling I eventually got most of it but no explanation was given for why the amount was reduced,” Cohen tweeted today, adding, “Indications were that the escrow agent dispensed the money over objections but everybody stopped communicating with me clearly like they were about to get sued.”

As Decrypt reported, Sun’s Tron acquired BitTorrent in 2018 with a $120 million bid (the price was later adjusted to around $140 million). Exactly a year later after the acquisition was officially completed, Cohen claimed that Sun was withholding the last part of the payment that the parties had agreed on.

When asked about the accuracy of his claims, Cohen said, “My source for this is that I don't have the fucking money and the escrow agency says they haven't gotten signoff.”

At the time, Cohen implied that Sun was trying to get the funds back out of escrow, although Sun denied this.

“I totally understand he wants his money, but right now it has nothing to do with me,” Sun told Decrypt at the time.

But while that issue between the two of them has been partially solved, it clearly hasn’t buried the hatchet.