Reddit co-founder trying to buy TikTok and bring it ‘on chain’

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has confirmed he has joined Project Liberty’s bid to acquire TikTok’s US operations with the aim of bringing the platform onto a blockchain. 

Ohanian’s involvement was first reported by Reuters on March 3, with Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt announcing Ohanian would be joining as a strategic adviser specializing in social media.

“I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok US — and bring it onchain,” Ohanian confirmed in a March 3 X post.

“Users should own their data. Creators should own their audience. Period,” he added. 

McCourt founded Project Liberty and has been building a consortium to purchase TikTok’s US operations and “rearchitect the platform to put people in control of their digital identities and data.”

The proposal is centered on using “Frequency,” a decentralized social network protocol that gives users ownership of their personal data and uses Polkadot’s infrastructure. 

“TikTok has been a game-changer for creators, and its future should be built by them,” Ohanian said on X.

“Frequency will empower these principles to become reality. And with transparency and accountability at the core, this new TikTok won’t just be fairer — it’ll be GREATER.”

Ohanian is no stranger to blockchain tech. Beginning in 2022, his platform, Reddit, invested excess cash reserves into Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Polygon (POL), though it sold most of it during the third quarter of 2024.

In 2022, Reddit also announced a blockchain-backed avatar system called Reddit Collectible Avatars — a collection of Polygon-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that users could buy and add to their profiles, which also came with perks. 

Related: China may sell TikTok to Musk if US ban goes through

However, NFT sales fell along with those of the crypto markets. The head of Reddit RCA, Bianca Wyler, stepped down from her role in January. 

The platform also once had a blockchain-based rewards service called “Community Points,” which was shut down in late 2023. 

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