Key takeaways
- BTT and APENFT are sister projects in the TRON ecosystem, both tied to Justin Sun, who acquired BitTorrent Inc. in 2018.
- BTT holders received NFT in the monthly airdrop that ran from June 2021 to June 2023. It is over; no claim is possible today.
- In December 2021, BTT was redenominated at 1 BTTOLD = 1,000 BTT, which is why airdrop minimums jumped from 2,000 to 2,000,000 BTT.
- BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) hosts mapped NFT tokens (
NFT_b,NFT_e), and BTFS originally stored APENFT artwork data.
BTT and APENFT: why the two names keep appearing together
Search “BTT APENFT” and most results are about one thing: the airdrop. Millions of people who held BitTorrent Token on an exchange or in a TRON wallet in 2021 woke up to find a new token, NFT, in their balance. That shared history is the main reason the two tokens are linked in people’s minds. But there is more to it than a giveaway. BitTorrent’s infrastructure, its chain and its file system, also played a part in how APENFT was built and moved between networks.
Both projects sit inside the same family. TRON founder Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent Inc. for US$140M in June 2018, and the company was later renamed Rainberry. He is also listed as a co-founder of APENFT. If you want the people side, read our neutral profile of Justin Sun. For the wider picture, see the TRON ecosystem map, which places BTT, NFT, TRX, JST and the rest side by side.
What is BitTorrent Token (BTT)?
BitTorrent Token is the token of the BitTorrent ecosystem on TRON. It started life as a TRC-10 token, TRON’s simpler native token format. In December 2021 it went through a redenomination that changed both its unit and its token standard.
- Old token
- BTTOLD, TRC-10, ID 1002000
- New token
- BTT, TRC-20
- New BTT contract
- TAFjULxiVgT4qWk6UZwjqwZXTSaGaqnVp4
- Swap ratio
- 1 BTTOLD = 1,000 BTT
- New BTT supply
- 990 trillion
- Redenomination date
- 12 December 2021 (Singapore time)
The redenomination and the launch of the BitTorrent Chain mainnet were scheduled for the same day. Old BTT did not vanish: it stayed on TRON as a TRC-10 asset now called BTTOLD. That detail matters for the airdrop story, because for a while both versions counted.
BTT and NFT side by side
The two tokens look similar at a glance. Both are TRON tokens with supplies in the hundreds of trillions, and both are often priced in fractions of a cent. They are still completely separate assets with separate contracts and markets.
| Feature | BTT | NFT (APENFT / AINFT) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard on TRON | TRC-20 (new BTT) | TRC-20 |
| Supply | 990 trillion | 999.99 trillion max |
| TRON contract | TAFjUL…qVp4 | TFczxz…cPNq |
| Main purpose | BitTorrent ecosystem token | APENFT, now AINFT governance token |
Similar-looking numbers can trick people into assuming the tokens track each other. They do not. Our NFT tokenomics breakdown explains NFT’s supply, burns and allocation in full.
The airdrop to BTT holders
The APENFT airdrop was the bridge that put NFT into BTT holders’ hands. The program paid out monthly to holders of TRX, BTT and JST, with WIN holders added in late 2021.
How it worked
- Snapshots were taken monthly on the 10th, from June 2021 to June 2023.
- Supply: after the first month, 1,666,650,000,000 NFT were distributed per month for 24 months, about 4% of total supply over the full period.
- Ratios varied by exchange and by round. In KuCoin’s first round, based on the 10 June 2021 snapshot, 1 BTT received about 3.03 NFT, compared with about 39.3 NFT per TRX and about 202 NFT per JST.
- Minimum holdings were introduced from November 2021: 2,000 BTT, alongside 100 TRX, 100 JST and 15,000 WIN.
What the redenomination changed
After December 2021, exchanges had to deal with two kinds of BTT. Binance, for example, counted both: BTTOLD with a minimum of 2,000 and new BTT with a minimum of 2,000,000. Those two minimums are the same economic amount, because of the 1-to-1,000 swap ratio. One of Binance’s announcements gives a concrete example: the tenth distribution was announced in April 2022, using a snapshot taken at TRON block 38,787,888 on 10 March 2022.
If you held BTT on an exchange that supported the program, the NFT usually appeared without any action on your part. That is why so many people ask why they suddenly have APENFT in their account. Our guide to the Binance APENFT airdrop covers that experience step by step, including how to find small balances that are hidden by default.
- June 2018 Justin Sun acquires BitTorrent Inc. for US$140M.
- May 2021 The NFT token contract is deployed on TRON.
- 10 June 2021 First airdrop snapshot for TRX, BTT and JST holders.
- November 2021 Minimum holdings introduced; WIN holders added.
- 12 December 2021 BTT redenomination at 1:1,000 and BTTC mainnet launch.
- March 2022 onward Exchanges count both BTTOLD and new BTT in snapshots.
- June 2023 Last scheduled snapshot; the airdrop program ends.
BitTorrent Chain (BTTC): NFT on a sidechain
BitTorrent Chain is a cross-chain scaling and bridge network that connects TRON, Ethereum and BNB Chain. When a token is bridged, BTTC creates a mapped version and adds a suffix that shows where it came from: _t for TRON, _e for Ethereum and _b for BNB Chain.
For APENFT, we found two mapped tokens on BTTC:
- NFT_b (“APENFT_BSC”) at
0x01910c7821f7652fedeb21334A9e256059084579, mapped from BNB Chain. - NFT_e (“APENFT_Ethereum”) at
0x0E0c0f3df7F7989272e63a459483dd86C4A9a943, mapped from Ethereum.
We did not find a TRON-mapped NFT_t. That means if you hold the main TRON NFT token, there is no confirmed direct path to bridge it to BTTC under the standard naming.
There is a further wrinkle. NFT exists as more than one contract on both BNB Chain and Ethereum, and which of those is canonical has not been confirmed. Mapped tokens inherit that uncertainty. Our guide to NFT on BNB Chain, Ethereum and BTTC lists the contracts and explains why we recommend keeping NFT on TRON.
BTFS: where APENFT’s art was stored
The third link is less visible but important to APENFT’s original design. The project said it was built on TRON and Ethereum, with artwork data stored on the BitTorrent File System (BTFS), a decentralized storage network. Even APENFT’s early documents, such as its security audit report, were hosted on a BTFS gateway.
Today the btfs.io domain redirects to a different site, bttinfergrid.ai. We have not verified what that means for files that were stored on BTFS through old gateways. If you own an APENFT-era NFT, check that its metadata and image still load from the marketplace or a public gateway. Our TRC-721 standard explainer shows how metadata links work on TRON.
Holding BTT and thinking about NFT too?
Buy on a regulated, licensed exchange with card payments, then withdraw to your own TRON wallet so you control both tokens in one place.
Licensed, regulated exchange · Operating since 2013 · Card & bank paymentsDo BTT and NFT move together?
Because they share an ecosystem, a founder and a history, it is tempting to treat BTT and NFT as a pair. There is no mechanism that ties their prices. They have separate supplies, separate markets and separate demand. Shared sentiment can still matter: news about Justin Sun or TRON regulation tends to touch both, and the March 2023 SEC lawsuit against Sun specifically concerned TRX and BTT.
- Shared TRON wallets and fee model make holding both simple
- BTTC offers bridging infrastructure between major chains
- Historic airdrop gave many BTT holders free exposure to NFT
- Both tokens are widely tracked on public explorers
- No price link: one token rising says nothing about the other
- Mapped NFT on BTTC depends on uncertain BSC and Ethereum contracts
- BTFS storage domain has changed, so old art links may break
- Shared founder adds correlated reputational and regulatory risk
How to check your BTT-era NFT
If you held BTT in 2021–2023 and want to know whether you have NFT left, here is a practical routine.
- Check your exchange. Look for a distribution or airdrop history page. On some exchanges you need to show small balances, as tiny amounts are hidden by default.
- Check your TRON wallet. In TronLink or another TRON wallet, add the custom token
TFczxzPhnThNSqr5by8tvxsdCFRRz6cPNqif NFT does not appear automatically. - Look it up on chain. Paste your address into our TRON address lookup or Tronscan to see the NFT balance and incoming airdrop transfers.
- Mind the fees. Moving NFT costs Energy: about 14,309 units to an existing holder, about 29,309 to a new one. Run the numbers in the TRON fee calculator before moving dust.
- Ignore unsolicited tokens. If strange tokens or tiny transfers appear in your history, they may be address poisoning or scam tokens. Do not interact with them.
For small balances, the fee to move them can be larger than their value. That is normal on TRON and is not a sign that anything is wrong. Our APENFT safety guide lists the scam patterns that target airdrop recipients.
What to do with NFT you received as a BTT holder
Once you have found your airdropped NFT, you have three realistic options. None of them is urgent, because the tokens do not expire.
Hold it. If the balance sits on an exchange, it stays there until you act. If it is in your own TRON wallet, it is safe as long as you control the recovery phrase. Note that the token is now branded AINFT, but the ticker is still NFT and the contract has not changed, so there is nothing to migrate. Our AINFT rebrand explainer covers what the name change means.
Sell it. On an exchange that lists NFT, you can sell it for USDT or another pair. Not every exchange that ran the airdrop lists NFT for trading. Binance, for example, distributed the airdrop but never opened a spot market for it. On chain, SunSwap V2 has NFT/USDT and NFT/WTRX pools, which our SunSwap guide explains.
Consolidate it. If you have small NFT balances spread across several wallets, moving them all to one address can cost more in TRX than they are worth. Compare the fee with the value before you move anything. Sending to an address that already holds NFT costs about half as much Energy as sending to a fresh one.
A quick note on fake BTT and NFT rewards
Two years of monthly airdrops taught many BTT holders that new tokens can appear in a wallet without warning. Scammers exploit exactly that habit: they send fake tokens with names like “APENFT reward” or “BTT bonus” along with a link. The rule is simple: real distributions arrive without you visiting a website or signing anything. If a token in your wallet tells you to go somewhere to claim it, leave it alone.
The bottom line
BTT and APENFT are connected by history and infrastructure, not by price. BTT holders were among the main recipients of the NFT airdrop, and the redenomination explains the strange-looking minimums in later rounds. BitTorrent Chain carries mapped versions of NFT from BNB Chain and Ethereum, while the main token stays on TRON. BTFS was part of APENFT’s original storage plan. If you hold either token, the safest approach is the same: use the official TRON contract, keep some TRX for fees, and treat any “claim” offer as a scam.
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Licensed, regulated exchange · Operating since 2013 · Card & bank paymentsFrequently asked questions
Why did BTT holders get APENFT?
From June 2021 to June 2023, APENFT ran a monthly airdrop to holders of TRX, BTT and JST, with WIN added later. Exchanges that supported the program credited NFT to eligible BTT balances automatically.
How much APENFT did 1 BTT get in the airdrop?
It varied by exchange and by round. In KuCoin's first round, based on the June 2021 snapshot, 1 BTT received about 3.03 NFT. Later rounds used different ratios.
Is the BTT APENFT airdrop still active?
No. The last scheduled snapshot was in June 2023 and the white paper describes the airdrop as concluded. Any site offering to claim BTT or APENFT airdrops today should be treated as phishing.
What happened to old BTT?
In December 2021 BTT was redenominated at 1 old BTT to 1,000 new BTT. The new BTT is a TRC-20 token, while the old one, now called BTTOLD, remained a TRC-10 token with ID 1002000.
Is there APENFT on BitTorrent Chain?
Yes, as mapped tokens: NFT_b, mapped from BNB Chain, and NFT_e, mapped from Ethereum. We did not find a TRON-mapped NFT_t version. The main NFT contract remains on TRON.
