Justin Sun

Last updated

Justin Sun
孙宇晨
Head of the Grenadian Delegation to the 12th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference Justin Sun.jpg
Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization
In office
2021–2023
Personal details
BornJuly 30, 1990 (1990-07-30) (age 34)
Xining, Qinghai, China
Alma mater Peking University
University of Pennsylvania
Occupation
  • Diplomat
  • Entrepreneur
  • Businessman
Known forFounder of TRON
Website www.hejustinsun.com

Justin Sun (Chinese :孙宇晨; pinyin :Sūn Yǔchén; born July 30, 1990) is a Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur and business executive. He is the founder of TRON, a cryptocurrency with an associated blockchain DAO ecosystem and USDD, a stablecoin issued by TRON DAO Reserve. [1] [2] [3] Sun is also the owner of Rainberry (formerly Bitorrent Inc.), which developed the BitTorrent protocol and under Sun's leadership developed the BTT cryptocurrency token. Sun also owns the crypto exchange Poloniex, and is affiliated with the crypto exchange HTX (formerly Huobi). Sun served as Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva from 2021 to 2023.

Contents

In 2023, Sun was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who alleged that Sun and his companies have engaged in fraudulent activity to inflate the price of the TRON (TRX) and BTT tokens, as well as selling unregistered securities. [4]

Early life and education

Sun was born in 1990. [5] He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in history from Peking University [6] and a Master of Arts degree in East Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania. [7]

At the University of Pennsylvania, Sun became interested in cryptocurrency and invested early in bitcoin. [8] He studied at Jack Ma's Zhejiang Hupan Entrepreneurship Research Center. [9] He became the cover figure of Yazhou Zhoukan in 2011 [8] and a Davos Global Shaper in 2014. [10]

Career

In late 2013, Sun joined Ripple Labs as chief representative and adviser. [5]

Sun founded the blockchain-based operating platform TRON and launched the TRX token in 2017. [5] [9] In September 2017 his company Tron held an initial coin offering (ICO) for the TRX token, a few days before the Chinese government banned ICOs. According to The Verge , Sun was aware of the impending ban, and pushed for the sale to occur before the ban could be announced. Shortly afterwards, Sun left China for the United States. TRON raised about $70 million at its ICO. [11] A cryptocurrency whitepaper Sun published attracted controversy following allegations that it was heavily derivative of earlier cryptocurrency whitepapers without any attribution. [12]

In June 2018, Sun acquired the company BitTorrent, Inc (later renamed Rainberry Inc.) for $140 million. The company is best known for developing the BitTorrent protocol. During his tenure leading BitTorrent as CEO, the BitTorrent network launched its own utility token, BTT. [11] [13] [14]

Sun later acquired the crypto exchange Poloniex. The Verge alleged in 2021 that Sun demanded that he should be given personal ownership of misplaced Poloniex customer funds that users accidentally sent to wrong wallet addresses, totaling about 300 bitcoin, despite the objections of Poloniex employees. [11] In November 2023 Poloniex had $120 million stolen by hackers. Sun offered to let the hackers keep $6.5 million if they returned the rest of the money within 7 days. [15]

Sometime between 2018 and 2020, Sun acquired a Maltese residency card as a result of investing in the country. [11]

In October 2021, Sun participated in a $65 million funding round in Hong Kong-based Animoca, a maker of crypto and blockchain video games such as The Sandbox. [16]

In February 2023, he was the largest individual staked ether holder, with a balance of $500 million. [17]

In August 2024, Sun launched the platform SunPump, a platform which allows users to create their own cryptocurrency tokens. [18]

Sun is associated with crypto exchange HTX (formerly Huobi). [19]

In 2024, Sun invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company associated with Donald Trump. [20]

Diplomacy

Sun was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2021. As a result, Sun phased out of his daily roles at his crypto-related projects such as TRON in order to focus on his diplomatic role at the WTO in Geneva. Sun told Bloomberg he would use his role to advocate cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to countries and promote technology development in Grenada. Sun said the Caribbean has "become a very good place for entrepreneurship" because of its close proximity to the U.S., with less strict regulations regarding cryptocurrency. [21]

In December 2021, Justin Sun retired as a CEO of TRON to become a diplomat for Grenada. [5] [21] [22]

In March 2023, Sun stepped down from his position as Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization, which followed the previous governing party of Grenada which had appointed him losing power following the general election the previous year. [23]

In October 2024, Sun was elected as a "Speaker of Congress" and appointed as "Prime Minister" of Liberland, a micronation (self-proclaimed country) that claims to own (but does not control) a small region on the Danube river floodplain border between Serbia and Croatia. [24]

Internet

Sun founded Peiwo, an app aspiring to become China's Snapchat that matches and connects users by analyzing 10-second voice samples as well interests. Peiwo has introduced a host of channels for users to make like-minded friends, with online games, talent shows and live streaming. According to Sun it has matched more than 4 billion chats to date. [25] The Verge described the app as an "audio-based mashup of Tinder and a live-stream chat room". [12]

In 2020, a civil lawsuit was filed against Sun by former TRON employees Lucasz Juraszek and Richard Hall, with allegations "ranging from fraud to harassment to whistleblower retaliation". While the filers sought a public trial, the judge sided with Sun's request for private arbitration. [12] In March 2023, Sun was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for selling unregistered securities related to the sale and promotion of Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens, alleging that Sun and his companies had engaged in fraudulent activities such as wash trading in the secondary market for TRX in order to raise its price. [4] [26] [27] Eight celebrities, including Akon, Ne-Yo, Austin Mahone, Soulja Boy, Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul and Lil Yachty were charged with promoting these cryptocurrencies without disclosing that they were sponsored. All defendants excluding Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone settled with payments in excess of $400,000 without admitting liability. [28] [29] [4] Prior reporting by The Verge also alleged that TRON, at the direction of Sun, had engaged in market manipulation by buying/selling TRX tokens based on non-public internal information. The Verge also alleged that as of 2022, Sun was under the investigation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the prosecutor's office for the Southern District of New York for potential criminal charges. [11]

Personal life

Sun placed the winning $4.6 million bid to have a private meal with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in June 2019, [30] [31] before canceling it to widespread surprise. [32] [33] The dinner with Buffett eventually occurred in early 2020. Sun met with Buffett, a critic of cryptocurrency, at the Happy Hollow Club in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 23, 2020. [34] [35] Sun was joined by other cryptocurrency executives, including leaders of Litecoin, eToro, Huobi, and Binance Charity Foundation. [34] [36] At the dinner, Sun gifted Buffett a phone with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. [37] The money from the charity auction benefited the Glide Foundation, which Buffett's late wife Susan introduced to Buffett after volunteering there. [38]

In December 2021, Sun announced that he had previously bid $28 million to be the first paying passenger on Blue Origin's first crewed mission into space on the New Shepard. Although he had won the auction, he was unable to attend the July 2021 flight due to a scheduling conflict. [39] [35] [40]

In November 2024, Sun purchased one of the three limited edition rights to Comedian , a 2019 conceptual artwork by Maurizio Cattelan consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall, for $5.2 million ($6.2 million including fees) at an auction in New York. [41] Shortly after the purchase he ate the banana onstage. [42] Sun later pledged to buy 100,000 bananas from the New York street vendor who the banana was originally purchased from (reportedly for 25 cents). [43]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Rainberry, Inc., formerly known as BitTorrent, Inc., is an American company responsible for μTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline. The company was founded on September 22, 2004 by Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin. It was successful during the Great Recession under the leadership of CEO Eric Klinker. In 2018, the company was acquired by cryptocurrency startup TRON, and Bram Cohen left the company. In March 2022, the SEC charged Rainberry with fraud for selling cryptocurrencies Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) as unregistered securities.

Fenwick & West LLP is a law firm of more than 470 attorneys with offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Santa Monica, Washington, DC and Shanghai. The firm focuses on the technology and life sciences sectors, advising clients at all stages from startups to public companies. Fenwick has been embroiled in legal issues with the US law enforcement and multiple class action lawsuits due to their representation of FTX, for whom they allegedly created shell companies in order to launder money and skirt regulatory scrutiny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptocurrency</span> Digital currency not reliant on a central authority

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.

Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work. It is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States in terms of trading volume. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. In May 2020, Coinbase announced it would shut its San Francisco, California, headquarters and change operations to remote-first, part of a wave of several major tech companies closing headquarters in San Francisco in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Circle is a peer-to-peer payments technology company that now manages stablecoin USDC, a cryptocurrency the value of which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013. Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. USDC, the second largest stablecoin worldwide, is designed to hold at or near a stable price of $1. The majority of its stablecoin collateral is held in short-term U.S. government securities.

HTX, formerly known as Huobi, is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in China,, HTX now has offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and the United States. In August 2018, it became a publicly listed Hong Kong company.

Kraken is a United States–based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. It was one of the first bitcoin exchanges to be listed on Bloomberg Terminal and was valued at US$3 billion in January 2024. The company has been the subject of several regulatory investigations since 2018, and has agreed to cumulative fines of over $30 million.

Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini) is an American cryptocurrency exchange and custodian bank. It was founded in 2014 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Tether is a cryptocurrency stablecoin launched by Tether Limited Inc. in 2014.

A cryptocurrency bubble is a phenomenon where the market increasingly considers the going price of cryptocurrency assets to be inflated against their hypothetical value. The history of cryptocurrency has been marked by several speculative bubbles.

OKX, formerly known as OKEx, is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange. It was founded by Star Xu in 2017, who is also the CEO as of 2023. The President is Hong Fang and the CMO is Haider Rafique. OKX is owned by OK Group, which also owns the crypto exchange Okcoin. As of August 2024, OKX is Top 3 Spot Cryptocurrency exchange in the world according to Coinmarketcap with a Spot Exchange Score of 7.8.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Changpeng Zhao</span> Chinese-Canadian business executive

Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman. Zhao is the co-founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2024. He resigned as the CEO in November 2023 after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge in the United States and was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024. Zhao was released from prison in September.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency where the value of the digital asset is supposed to be pegged to a reference asset, which is either fiat money, exchange-traded commodities, or another cryptocurrency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tron (blockchain)</span> Blockchain computing platform

Tron is a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain with smart contract functionality. The cryptocurrency native to the blockchain is known as Tronix (TRX). It was founded in March 2014 by Justin Sun and since 2017 has been overseen and supervised by the TRON Foundation, a non-profit organization in Singapore, established in the same year. It is open-source software.

USD Coin (USDC) is a cryptocurrency stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. Managed by Circle, USDC is issued by a private organization and is distinct from a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solana (blockchain platform)</span> Public blockchain platform

Solana is a blockchain platform which uses a proof-of-stake mechanism to provide smart contract functionality. Its native cryptocurrency is SOL.

Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency exchange company based in Singapore that offers various financial services, including an app, exchange, and noncustodial DeFi wallet, NFT marketplace, and direct payment service in cryptocurrency. As of June 2023, the company reportedly had 100 million customers and 4,000 employees.

The Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange was hacked in August 2016. 119,756 bitcoin, worth about US$72 million at the time, was stolen.

Terra is a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins. The project was created in 2018 by Terraform Labs, a startup co-founded by Do Kwon and Daniel Shin. It was best known for its Terra stablecoin and the associated LUNA reserve asset cryptocurrency.

Gate.io is a Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency exchange and blockchain platform established in 2013. According to Bloomberg and Reuters it is ranked among the top most worldwide for the trading volume.

References

  1. ↑ "USDD upgrades into the first over-collateralized decentralized stablecoin". June 5, 2022. Archived from the original on October 13, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2024– via cointelegraph.com.
  2. ↑ Pan, David (June 26, 2023). "Crypto Exchange Huobi Delists Tokens Using Justin Sun's Tron Stablecoin". Bloomberg.
  3. ↑ "Another algorithmic stablecoin loses its peg as Tron's USDD falls, with founder Justin Sun vowing to deploy $2 billion". Fortune. Archived from the original on June 15, 2022. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 "SEC.gov | SEC Charges Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun and his Companies for Fraud and Other Securities Law Violations". www.sec.gov. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Foust, Jeff (December 23, 2021). "Crypto entrepreneur to go to space on New Shepard". Space News.
  6. ↑ Chen, Jiayin (January 24, 2022). "'Idols Are Dead': TRON Founder Justin Sun on the Opportunities That Crypto Art Presents for His Rising Generation". Artnet News. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  7. 1 2 Zou, Cornelia (July 2, 2019). "Why Justin Sun has 1.3 million Weibo followers". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  8. 1 2 Li, Jane (July 21, 2019). "Crypto-bro Justin Sun represents everything Warren Buffett "can't even" about crypto". Quartz . Archived from the original on August 16, 2022. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  9. 1 2 Fulton, Michaela (June 17, 2019). "5 things to know about Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  10. ↑ "30 under 30". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Harland-Dunaway, Christopher (March 9, 2022). "The many escapes of Justin Sun". The Verge. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 Harland-Dunaway, Christopher (September 29, 2020). "The crypto millionaire that acquired BitTorrent—and waded into the trade war". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 2, 2024. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  13. ↑ "BitTorrent unveils cryptocurrency so users can pay for faster download times". VentureBeat. January 3, 2019. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  14. ↑ Kharif, Olga (December 17, 2021). "Crypto Wunderkind Justin Sun Says He's Becoming a Diplomat for Grenada". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  15. ↑ Jones, Connor. "Justin Sun offers 5% deal to $120M Poloniex crypto-robbers". www.theregister.com. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Ubisoft, Sequoia China Help NFT Creator Hit $2 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg.com. October 20, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  17. ↑ Nina Bambysheva (February 27, 2023). "Liquid Staking Takes DeFi By Storm With $240 Million Lido Inflow, Apparently From Justin Sun". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  18. ↑ Mehad, Qureshi. "Justin Sun Launches Pump Fun Rival SunPump." The Defiant, 29 August 2024. https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/justin-sun-launches-pump-fun-rival-sunpump Archived August 30, 2024, at the Wayback Machine .
  19. ↑ "In Huobi's HTX Rebrand, the Echoes of FTX Go Beyond the Name". Bloomberg. September 21, 2023. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 27, 2023– via Bloomberg.com.
  20. ↑ Sigalos, MacKenzie (November 26, 2024). "Banana auction billionaire's $30 million investment in Trump's crypto token highlights new ways to enrich president-elect". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
  21. 1 2 Kharif, Olga (December 17, 2021). "Crypto Wunderkind Justin Sun Says He's Becoming a Diplomat for Grenada". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  22. ↑ Yang, Yueqi (December 22, 2021). "Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun Tackles Space Next With Blue Origin Flight". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  23. ↑ Weiss, Ben. "'His excellency' no longer: Grenada sunsets Justin Sun's role as WTO rep in wake of SEC lawsuit". Fortune Crypto. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  24. ↑ Chaturvedi, Vinamrata (October 10, 2024). "A crypto king is now the prime minister of a tiny country". Quartz. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
  25. ↑ "Justin Sun". Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2019– via Forbes.com.
  26. ↑ Wigglesworth, Robin (March 22, 2023). "SEC goes after Justin Sun, Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy". Financial Times. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  27. ↑ Roth, Emma (March 22, 2023). "SEC sues Justin Sun for his crypto schemes, along with Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy". The Verge. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  28. ↑ Mueller, Julia (March 22, 2023). "SEC charges Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul with crypto violations". The Hill. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  29. ↑ Hipes, Patrick (March 22, 2023). "Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Lil Yachty Among Celebrities Charged In SEC Crypto Case". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  30. ↑ Lam, Katherine (June 3, 2019). "Winning bidder of Warren Buffett's private lunch revealed as Tron CEO Justin Sun". FOXBusiness. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  31. ↑ "Chinese blockchain entrepreneur Justin Sun won Warren Buffett's charity lunch with $4.6M bid". Yahoo Finance. June 3, 2019. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  32. ↑ Stevenson, Alexandra; Li, Cao (July 24, 2019). "Who Cancels Lunch With Warren Buffett? A Chinese Tycoon Did, but Why?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 14, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  33. ↑ Russolillo, Stella Yifan Xie and Steven. "'Excessive Self-Promotion': Justin Sun Apologizes After Postponing Charity Lunch With Warren Buffett". WSJ. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  34. 1 2 Mohamed, Theron. "Warren Buffett finally had his $4.6 million meal with crypto boss Justin Sun". Markets Insider. Archived from the original on February 7, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  35. 1 2 "Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun Tackles Space Next With Blue Origin Flight". Bloomberg.com. December 22, 2021. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  36. ↑ Crippen, Alex (February 6, 2020). "Cryptocurrency entrepreneur finally gets his $4.6 million meal with Buffett". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  37. ↑ Crippen, Alex (February 6, 2020). "Cryptocurrency entrepreneur finally gets his $4.6 million meal with Buffett". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  38. ↑ "Crypto pioneer Justin Sun pays $4.57 million for Warren Buffett lunch". Reuters. June 3, 2019. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  39. ↑ "Crypto pioneer Justin Sun plans space trip with Blue Origin". Reuters. December 22, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  40. ↑ Foust, Jeff (December 23, 2021). "Crypto entrepreneur to go to space on New Shepard". SpaceNews. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  41. ↑ Jefferson, Dee (November 21, 2024). "Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork fetches US$5.2m at New York auction". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  42. ↑ Wiggins, Kaye; Ho-him, Chan (November 29, 2024). "Trump-linked crypto founder eats $6mn banana on stage". Financial Times. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  43. ↑ Nelson, George (November 29, 2024). "Justin Sun Vows to Buy 100,000 Bananas From Vendor Who Sold 25-Cent Banana Used for $6.2 M. 'Comedian'". ARTnews.com. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.