TRON’s BitTorrent ICO Raises $7 Million in 15 Minutes
Binance Launchpad, the token launch platform of Binance, conducted an ICO of TRON’s BitTorrent tokens (BTT) on Jan. 28th., with tokens selling out in less than 15 minutes. Almost 60 billion tokens were sold, raising a total of $7 million. According to Binance’s CEO, the sale’s “demand was astronomical.”
BitTorrent’s Token Sale Complete
Despite the ongoing cryptocurrency bear market, a newly launched token (BTT) managed to exceed expectations. The sale was announced on Jan 18th., with Binance saying that it would be exclusively offering TRON’s tokens on Binance Launchpad.
According to an official blog post from the company, the token sale ran in two simultaneous sessions: one for purchases using Binance Coin (BNB) and another for purchases using TRON (TRX), both of which sold out quickly.
Data has shown that the Binance Coin (BNB) session lasted 13 minutes and sold 23.8 billion BitTorrent tokens, while the TRON session closed in just over 14 minutes, selling 35.6 billion BTT.
BitTorrent tokens were priced at 0.00001824 BNB or 0.00447261 TRX at the point of sale, both roughly equivalent to $0.000115 at the time. The minimum amount of BTT eligible for purchase was 100,000 ($11).
Issues Arise Amidst the Enthusiasm
Judging by trading prices at the time of the sale, the company sold tokens worth over $7 million in less than 15 minutes. The enthusiasm surrounding the token sale has made BitTorrent’s ICO the most successful offering of the year, so far.
However, the ICO’s incredible popularity has caused a slew of issues to arise preventing many users from buying the coins. Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, the CEO of Binance, went to Twitter to explain that Binance was experiencing technical issues.
Full transparency. The issue experienced today was caused by the "user agreement confirmation" button caching/locking. Most of the stress tests focused on the buy process, this part was not covered thoroughly enough. The order of requests received was preserved.
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 28, 2019
Despite CZ’s quick response, dozens of users have criticized the process, saying they were unable to buy tokens. Some users suspected foul play, pointing out that the sell-off started with more than 28 percent of the tokens already sold. Many believe the company manipulated the data, calling the entire sale a “scam.” It is yet to be seen whether the critical comments will affect the companies.
Justin Sun, the CEO of TRON, said that he would explore the possibility of the airdrop. Later, Changpeng Zhao confirmed the BitTorrent token airdrop aimed at those who were unable to buy the tokens during the official sale.
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
Overall, the successful token sale serves as a morale booster for the crypto community, which hasn’t seen in a strong ICO in months. The successful token sale demonstrates that a well-orchestrated ICO can still successfully raise funding.