Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian hinted at buying TikTok and putting it on-chain

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, hinted at buying TikTok. He also stated plans to put the social media on-chain. 

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, hinted at the possibility of acquiring TikTok US and suggested he might put some of the social media’s features on-chain. The social network is still accessible for US-based accounts, despite the recent ban.

TikTok discontinued its service briefly on January 18, but returned to app stores and continues to be accessible for US-based content creators. 

Ohanian suggests putting TikTok on the blockchain

Ohanian went a step further, suggesting he may put TikTok on-chain. His interest in TikTok is part of the People’s Bid for TikTok initiative. The consortium deal, also backed by Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank, will include crowd funding and the potential to hold a small stake of the newly acquired company. For now, Ohanian has not detailed where the on-chain component will fit, but it would be possible to tokenize those small shares.

Exciting news for the digital world…

I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok US — and bring it on-chain.

TikTok has been a game-changer for creators, and it’s future should be built by them↓ pic.twitter.com/SPq1Ppv1kK

— Alexis Ohanian 🗽 (@alexisohanian) March 4, 2025

So far, the purchase of TikTok is still in the preliminary stages and nowhere certain. On-chain social media has been a long-running idea, with several implementations. However, there is still no mass-market social media with on-chain connections. The most active crypto-based social media was Farcaster, though it reiterated content from X.

Ohanian repeated the message of many crypto startups that users should be in control of their data. He also pre-announced another development, without mentioning the nature of the new event.

That was fun.
Now let’s announce something big tomorrow, too.
😏 Won’t be onchain (yet), but it’ll be exciting.

— Alexis Ohanian 🗽 (@alexisohanian) March 5, 2025

Ohanian is just one among the many potential buyers of TikTok. Other candidates include the American Investor Consortium, David Baszucki, co-founder of Roblox, as well as Mathan McCauley and Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast). Interested buyers also include Microsoft, Perplexity AI, Walmart, and Oracle.

TikTok was supposed to be a spin off from its parent company ByteDance, and form a TikTok US entity. The new company is the object of bids, though the deal is still in its early stages.

Onchain social media may reawaken SocialFi

Onchain social media may re-spark demand for SocialFi. In theory, SocialFi was supposed to offer multiple perks, but ended up benefiting early whales. One of the main ideas of SocialFi was content curation, where viral videos would pay out a share of their earnings. 

Communities were also supposed to act in place of the algorithm, promoting and pushing content. Unfortunately, most social media ended up being bot-driven machines that promote insider content. Small-scale creators did not receive a significant payout. 

On-chain activity can also be neutral, such as providing provable time stamps to show ownership of a video. The content itself may gain an additional on-chain record, and even followers can be connected through wallets and Web3 identities. On-chain ownership may also mean content can be shared and tracked across platforms, paying out revenue to the original creator.

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