Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian Joins TikTok Bid, Wants to Bring Video App On-Chain

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian wants to buy TikTok—and bring it on-chain. 

Billionaire American businessman and Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt told Reuters that Ohanian will join his bid to buy TikTok as a strategic advisor specializing in social media.

“He has that broad portfolio of experience… of where social media was and, I think, a keen understanding of where it’s evolving,” McCourt told Reuters of the Reddit co-founder.

Ohanian confirmed the report on X (formerly Twitter) this afternoon, hammering home the fact that creators should own their audience, while users own their data.

“I’ve spent my career betting on the future—starting with Reddit, then with Seven Seven Six and now this,” he said. “We're setting a new standard for what’s possible in digital communities. A TikTok for the people, by the people. Let's see if we can pull this off.”

To pull it off, Ohanian noted, McCourt plans to use Frequency, a layer-1 network that aims to give users complete control of their social data. The network, which started as a Polkadot parachain, is built as an instance of the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP)—an open protocol built by McCourt’s Project Liberty that attempts to create a new standard for social media and data ownership. 

The network, which recently partnered with Consensys (disclosure: one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt) to expand its footprint into the Ethereum ecosystem, was selected as the network of choice for “empowering the social web” as part of Project Liberty’s bid for TikTok US, also known as “The People’s Bid.”

“Users should own their data. Creators should own their audience,” posted Ohanian. “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 interacting or investing on-chain, having done so through his venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, which participated in fundraises for notable companies like Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, Doodles, Rainbow, Sorare, and more. 

Ohanian and Frequency did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s requests for comment. 

TikTok, which was momentarily banned in the United States in January over fears that Chinese owner ByteDance is spying on American users, previously denied acquisition rumors—including those that featured X owner, Elon Musk. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that granted a 75-day delay on the ban or sell order facing ByteDance.

Edited by Andrew Hayward