TorrentGalaxy was taken over by new owners last year and faced repeated difficulties in the months that followed. Official updates have been sparse, but according to a new message posted by the operators, they're having trouble paying the bills. Further details are lacking, but the call for help resulted in a healthy stream of crypto donations, which will be of interest to anti-piracy groups too.

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Founded in 2018, TorrentGalaxy has grown to become a leading player in the torrent ecosystem.

The site was launched by former members of ExtraTorrent, a popular torrent site that had just shut down. The founders of TorrentGalaxy aimed to provide a home for ExtraTorrent ‘refugees’ but, over time, it evolved into one of the leading torrent sites.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Trade Representative flagged TorrentGalaxy among the most notorious pirate sites. According to the report, the site was one of the main beneficiaries of RARBG’s shutdown in 2023.

TorrentGalaxy Troubles

While TorrentGalaxy remains online today, it has faced considerable downtime after the original team sold the site to new operators last year. This change of ownership offered an explanation for the earlier ‘maintenance‘ issues, but the site’s troubles didn’t end there.

Under the new ownership, TorrentGalaxy has faced repeated outages and technical hiccups. Since the site’s operators have remained quiet throughout, the cause of these difficulties remains unclear.

Last weekend, a message appeared on the site that might shed more light on the matter. Presumably posted by the site’s operators, the notice claims that TorrentGalaxy is in financial dire straits.

TorrentGalaxy Asks for Donations

After purchasing the site from its original founders relatively recently, TorrentGalaxy’s new owners claim that they’re now having trouble paying the server bills. They’re asking users to chip in by donating Bitcoin, Ethereum, or TRX.

“Hello friends, unfortunately torrentgalaxy is in financial difficulties. We ask you to make a small donation towards the server costs,” TorrentGalaxy writes.

Chip In..

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It’s not uncommon for pirate sites to ask users for donations to pay the bills, or to otherwise plead financial hardship. These claims are impossible to verify based on the information provided, but several of the site’s users seem willing to chip in.

Crypto Rolls In…

After just a few days, TorrentGalaxy has already received nearly 90 donations, most in Bitcoin. This is good for roughly $3,000 at the current exchange rate, a healthy amount considering that the target audience consists of pirates.

BTC donations

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For comparison, fellow torrent site The Pirate Bay typically receives an average of roughly $10 in donations per day. However, they don’t claim financial hardship or prominently ‘request’ donations.

For rightsholders, the cryptocurrency addresses will be of interest. They present potential opportunities to ‘follow the money’ by linking the addresses to actual persons or entities.

Previously, the authorities were able to seize crypto assets from pirate services that were using centralized exchanges, as opposed to self-custody wallets. While we don’t know if that’s the case here, anti-piracy groups will likely take a closer look.

Whether TorrentGalaxy’s troubles are resolved by the outpouring of generosity isn’t clear. However, history has shown that once donation drives have proven to be successful, they tend to become a recurring phenomenon.