BitTorrent Has 'No Plans to Change' After $120 Million Tron Acquisition

Peer-to-peer file sharing service BitTorrent seemingly pushed back against claims it would begin using cryptocurrencies after being acquired by the Tron Foundation.

In a statement posted to its website Tuesday, BitTorrent wrote that the company has "no plans to change" its business model and will not charge fees for any of its services. Further, the company stated that it has "no plans to enable mining of cryptocurrency now or in the future."

The company was recently acquired by the Tron Foundation's Justin Sun, according to a report from Variety.

The statement continued:

"BitTorrent has been a pioneer of peer-to-peer file sharing and we believe our vision of democratizing the Web by enabling decentralized, resilient access to information remains as relevant as it was when we started."

News that the company would be acquired first emerged last week, and on Tuesday it was reported that the price tag of the deal was $140 million. However, BitTorrent co-founder and former president Ashwin Navin told CoinDesk in an interview that the actual acquisition cost was $120 million.

"The value of the deal is about $120 million. I think there are some numbers out in the public that were wrong, I think the value is lower than that," Navin told CoinDesk.

Price tag aside, the news sent Tron's TRX token's up nearly 20 percent, according to a previous report from CoinDesk.

Sun, who founded the Tron Foundation, reportedly said during a radio show that he has "full respect for BitTorrent." However, he declined to say what he hoped the two companies would work on after the merger, only noting that news would be released next month.

On Tuesday, BitTorrent concluded its post by saying "we reiterate that we are committed to our hundreds of million users worldwide and will continue to invest and innovate in the BitTorrent and uTorrent products."

Additional reporting by Annaliese Milano.

BitTorrent image via Piotr Swat / Shutterstock