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Justin Sun

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Justin Sun
孙宇晨
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 materPeking University
University of Pennsylvania
Occupation
  • Diplomat
  • Entrepreneur
  • Businessman
Known forFounder of TRON
Websitewww.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.

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 exhange HTX (formerly Huobi).[19]

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.[20]

In December 2021, Justin Sun retired as a CEO of TRON to become a diplomat for Grenada.[5][20][21]

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.[22]

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.[23]

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. It has matched more than 4 billion chats to date.[24] The Verge described the app as a "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][25][26] 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.[27][28][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,[29][30] before canceling it to widespread surprise.[31][32] 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.[33][34] Sun was joined by other cryptocurrency executives, including leaders of Litecoin, eToro, Huobi, and Binance Charity Foundation.[33][35] At the dinner, Sun gifted Buffett a phone with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.[36] The money from the charity auction benefited the Glide Foundation, which Buffett's late wife Susan introduced to Buffett after volunteering there.[37]

In December 2021, Sun won an auction with a bid of $28 million to be the first paying passenger to fly on Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle in July 2021, but he was not able to fly on the mission due to a scheduling conflict.[38][34]

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.[39]

Bibliography

  • Brave New World (2017)[7]

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. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d e Harland-Dunaway, Christopher (March 9, 2022). "The many escapes of Justin Sun". The Verge. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  12. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b 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.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ Chaturvedi, Vinamrata (October 10, 2024). "A crypto king is now the prime minister of a tiny country". Quartz. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
  24. ^ "Justin Sun". Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Forbes.com.
  25. ^ 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.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ 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.
  30. ^ "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.
  31. ^ 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.
  32. ^ 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.
  33. ^ a b 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.
  34. ^ a b "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.
  35. ^ 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.
  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 May 12, 2023.
  37. ^ "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.
  38. ^ "Crypto pioneer Justin Sun plans space trip with Blue Origin". Reuters. December 22, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  39. ^ 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.
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