BitTorrent’s status—whether it’s a sleeping giant or just influencer hype—depends on how you look at it. The tech itself, launched back in 2001 by Bram Cohen, is a decentralized peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol. It’s proven its chops: by 2004, it was handling a third of all internet traffic, and it’s still kicking around, with millions of users swapping files daily. The numbers aren’t fluff—its resilience comes from being efficient, scalable, and damn hard to kill. No central server means no single point of failure, which is why it’s been a go-to for everything from Linux distros to pirated movies.
But the “sleeping giant” vibe? That’s trickier. BitTorrent’s had its glow-up moments—like when Tron bought it in 2018 and tried to juice it with blockchain hype via the BTT token. The idea was to incentivize seeding and turn it into a Web3 darling. Early buzz spiked BTT’s market cap to over $1 billion by 2021, but it’s since crashed to around $200 million. Usage stats are murky—BitTorrent claims 100 million monthly active users across its clients, but independent data’s sparse. Compare that to, say, YouTube’s 2 billion or even niche players like Telegram’s 900 million, and it’s not exactly snoring its way to dominance.
Influencers pumping it? Sure, some crypto shills rode the BTT wave, but the hype’s cooled. X posts lately lean more nostalgic or technical—users praising its utility or griping about torrent site takedowns. No flood of “BitTorrent to the moon” noise. The real question is potential. It’s got a cult following, and decentralized tech’s sexy again with AI and Web3 chatter. Could it pivot into something bigger—like a backbone for decentralized AI data sharing? Maybe. But right now, it’s more like a grizzled vet than a giant waking up. Hype’s faded; the tech just keeps chugging.#PowellRemarks #BTCvsMarkets #DiversifyYourAssets #BTTC $BTTC