The Tron saga took another curious turn on Thursday, as Bram Cohen – the creator of BitTorrent – alleged that Justin Sun failed to make a scheduled payment stemming from his purchase of BitTorrent last year.
Bram Cohen: Is Justin Sun ‘Hard Up for Cash?’
Writing on Twitter, Cohen – who is no longer affiliated with BitTorrent but operates another cryptocurrency project – claimed that Sun “isn’t letting the last payment for BitTorrent get out of escrow.”
“My source for this is that I don’t have the f**king money and the escrow agency says they haven’t gotten signoff,” he retorted when probed for more information.
Anybody know if Justin Sun is hard up for cash? He isn’t letting the last payment for BitTorrent get out of escrow.
— Bram Cohen (@bramcohen) July 25, 2019
My source for this is that I don’t have the fucking money and the escrow agency says they haven’t gotten signoff. What’s your source?
— Bram Cohen (@bramcohen) July 25, 2019
Cohen speculated that Sun – allegedly one of the world’s youngest crypto billionaires – might be “hard up for cash.”
Sun purchased BitTorrent in 2018, reportedly for $140 million. Tron quickly pivoted BitTorrent into a crypto play, even issuing a BitTorrent cryptocurrency (BTT) through an initial coin offering-style sale.
Unpacking the Tron Saga
Sun and Tron have both been in the spotlight ever since he abruptly suspended his scheduled lunch with investing icon Warren Buffett.
He had paid more than $4.5 million in a charity auction for the privilege of dining with Buffett but postponed it under suspicious circumstances.
Chinese media outlets claim that Sun is on an “exit-ban list,” which prevents him from traveling outside the country. He’s reportedly being investigated for a host of criminal activities ranging from illegal fundraising to money laundering to facilitating the spread of pornography. All of these accusations relate to the operations of his startups, namely Tron and Peiwo.
Sun was in San Francisco as recently as Wednesday, with reports suggesting he has been living abroad for most of the year.
Despite initially refuting at least one report in Chinese media outlet Caixin, Sun later published an apology letter than many observers described as strange and out of character for the ordinarily-charismatic Tron leader.
Tron did not immediately respond to CCN’s request for comment.
