μTP emerged from research at [[Internet2]] on [[Quality of service|QoS]] and high-performance [[bulk transport]], was adapted for use as a background transport protocol by Plicto, that was founded by [[Stanislav Shalunov]]<ref>[http://www.fastcolabs.com/3014951/why-your-bittorrent-downloads-move-so-fast This Is How Your BitTorrent Downloads Move So Fast], Fastcolabs, 2013-07-29, Retrieved November 6, 2013</ref> and later it was acquired by [[BitTorrent (company)|BitTorrent, Inc.]] in 2006, and further developed within its new owner.<ref>http://www.slideshare.net/eCommConf/eric-klinker-presentation-at-emerging-communication-conference-awards-2010-america/11 uTP timeline, slide 11, "This Green Revolution-improving the yield of your network investment", eComm America Conference, San Francisco, CA, April 2010.</ref> It was first introduced in the μTorrent 1.8.x beta branches, and publicized in the alpha builds of [[μTorrent]] 1.9.<ref>[{{Cite web|last=Beijnum|first=Iljitsch van|date=2008-12-02|title=?Torrent's switch to UDP and why the sky isn't falling|url=https://arstechnica.com/news.arsuncategorized/post2008/12/20081201-utorrents-switch-to-udp-and-why-the-sky-isnt-falling.html/|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Ars µTorrent's switch to UDP and why the sky isn't falling]Technica|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>[http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3807-utorrent-shifts-towards-udp-to-make-it-work-better.html uTorrent shifts towards UDP to make it work better]</ref>
The implementation of μTP used in μTorrent was later separated into the "libutp" library and published under the [[MIT license]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=76640 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-01-15 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123183649/http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=76640 |archive-date=2011-01-23 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=bittorrent/libutp|date=2021-05-08|url=https://github.com/bittorrent/libutp|publisher=BitTorrent Inc.|access-date=2021-05-11}}</ref>
The first [[free software]] client to implement μTP was [[KTorrent]] 4.0.<ref>http{{Cite web|title=KTorrent First BitTorrent Client To Adopt Open Source uTP * TorrentFreak|url=https://torrentfreak.com/ktorrent-first-bittorrent-client-to-adopt-open-source-utp-100528/|access-date=2021-05-11|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=24 May 2010|title=KTorrent 4.0 is out|url=http://ktorrent.pwsp.net/?q=node/42 {{webarchive%2F42|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402090740/http://ktorrent.pwsp.net/?q=node%2F42|archive-date=2015-04-02}}</ref> [[libtorrent]] implements μTP since version 0.16.0<ref>{{Cite web|title=Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting.|url=https://code.google.com/archive/p/libtorrent/downloads/detail?name|access-date=libtorrent2021-rasterbar05-011|website=code.16google.0.tar.gzcom}}</ref> and it is used in [[qBittorrent]] since 2.8.0.<ref>http{{Cite web|title=qBittorrent Official Website|url=https://www.qbittorrent.org/news.php|access-date=2021-05-11|website=www.qbittorrent.org}}</ref> [[Tixati]] implements μTP since version 1.72.<ref>http://www.tixati.com/news/</ref> [[Vuze]] (formerly Azureus) implements μTP since version 4.6.0.0.<ref>https://wiki.vuze.com/w/Version_4400_4702_Changelog</ref> [[Transmission (BitTorrent client)|Transmission]] implements μTP since version 2.30.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://trac.transmissionbt.com/wiki/Changes#version-2.30 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-07-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524013026/https://trac.transmissionbt.com/wiki/Changes#version-2.30 |archive-date=2015-05-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
