Justin Sun is known primarily as the founder of TRON, a blockchain cryptocurrency with smart-contract capabilities.
The early years
Sun was inspired by the Chinese business guru Jack Ma (co-founder of Alibaba). He even attended and graduated from one of Ma’s elite business seminars, the so-called “billionaire club business school”.
Sun’s first company Peiwo, a sort of audio hook-up app, was cancelled by the Chinese government due to the content being vulgar and pornographic after only five years of availability.
Sun was also the head of Ripple development in China prior to founding Tron. Ripple, of course, is the subject of a major ongoing (and highly contentious) lawsuit by the SEC who contends that XRP is an unregistered security.
The infamous Warren Buffet lunch
As his wealth grew, Sun purchased a charity power-lunch with Warren Buffet on behalf of the homeless in San Francisco. The cost of the lunch = 4.57 million dollars.
Sun invited Yoni Assia (the founder of eToro), Huobi CEO Chris Lee, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, and Litecoin founder Charlie Lee.
Donald Trump, CZ of Binance, and Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum were also invited, but they either declined or did not respond to the Twitter invite.
Citing kidney stones, Sun cancelled on the original date of the lunch meeting.
On that same day, a news report was released in China that accused him of money laundering, “sex trafficking” via Peiwo, and other crimes. He had been instructed by the government to remain in China due to these accusations. Presumably that would make it difficult to attend the luncheon with Mr. Buffett.
He quickly posted a Twitter video of himself refuting the news report claims.
The purchase of BitTorrent
In 2020, Sun engaged in a controversial purchase of BitTorrent for 140 million, even with its well-established reputation for piracy (akin to Napster in the 1990s).
The process did not go smoothly, and rumors abound regarding Sun’s behavior and the acquisition of BitTorrent.
Representative of Grenada
Sun stepped down from TRON in December 2021 to become the Permanent Representative of Grenada to the WTO, after purchasing a citizenship in the Caribbean island nation.
At this point his Twitter handle changed to “H. E. Justin Sun,” standing for “His Excellency Justin Sun.” Previously, he made a big deal out of this title on Twitter. Now he just has the flag of Grenada (which frankly, not many people would recognize at first glance).
It is unclear to what extent (where and when) this post might grant him diplomatic immunity, if at all. It is unclear where he currently resides, however in February of 2023 he has announced that he plans to move to Hong Kong.
He has beef with Buterin
Sun has engaged in several public social media spats with Vitalik Buterin regarding TRON’s alleged plagiarism of Ethereum’s white paper and business model.
Sun contends the similarities are due to translation methods from Chinese to English.
Even after Sun’s proffered explanation, Buterin continued to troll Sun for various unrelated business maneuvers he felt were unethical, including the purchase/takeover of BitTorrent.
Buterin clearly did not expect this result from an informal online Twitter poll, nor Sun’s response to the poll.
He buys high profile items
Sun was the 1st runner-up bidder on Beeple 5000 Days NFT via Christies, which eventually sold for 69 million dollars to Metakovan (aka Metapurse) in March 2021.
Later that same month, Sun obtained his own Beeple NFT from a “green” charity auction. He purchased the work, called Ocean Front, for 6 million dollars.
Sun also paid 28 million dollars in an auction to secure the privilege of hitching a ride into space curtesy of Jeff Bezos’ company.
More in depth reading
Perhaps the most complete assessment of Sun’s escapades can be found in a March 2022 online article from The Verge called The Many Escapes of Justin Sun, in which it states, “Sun’s endgame is unclear.”
Sun immediately responded to the article on Twitter (where else), with a well-crafted reply to the Verge’s accusations.
He supports Ukraine… or he doesn’t?
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sun signaled support for Ukraine on English language social media sites such as Twitter. In fact, he was one of the first to confirm that the Ukraine crypto-wallet addresses were indeed valid.
He then requested that a TRON address be added to the official list. Once this occurred, he announced a 200,000 dollar-equivalent donation of TRON tokens.
A few days later, the official Ukraine Twitter handle graciously expressed gratitude for donations from Gavin Wood at Polkadot.
Clearly feeling snubbed, Sun tweeted that his/Tron’s financial contributions to Ukraine were not being properly recognized.
However, on Chinese-language Twitter and on Weibo, Sun instead detailed his discussion with the Russian World Trade Organization representative, adding, “Hope to strengthen future cooperation with Russia!” He did not post this on his English-language social media accounts.
He did post his support for Ukraine on the Chinese app Weibo, though his comments were not well received by users. He was quickly accused of being both pro-NATO and anti-China. Likewise, the Twitter-verse collectively became grumpy at the blatant marketing angle tainting his donations.
Justin Sun to the rescue?
2022 and early 2023 have been rough for crypto. Celsius tanked then FTX exploded in early 2023.
Justin Sun has made some offers to buy some distressed assets related to both debacles. No deal has been struck for either as of yet.
This feels reminiscent of when SBF and FTX “rescued” BlockFI and Voyager Digital in summer 2022… perhaps Tron and Sun are both “too good to true?
He holds a lot of Bitcoin in a Valkyrie SMA
Justin Sun holds over 500 million dollars worth of Bitcoin in a Valkyrie SMA (separately managed account). In this situation, investors have direct ownership of the asset, but the position is managed by the firm who then sells and buys the asset at the best times to make the most profit.
Several crypto news outlets have noted this seems to be an odd strategy for someone who has been part of the crypto industry since its’ early days.
According to Sam Reynolds at Coindesk, the SMA is a “vehicle that’s designed for boomer asset managers who are uncomfortable with self-custody to get exposure to digital assets.”
So, why? We can only guess.
There is documented tension between Sun and the Chinese government, not only for his historical business endeavors, but also for his extreme wealth predicated upon cryptocurrency (which is currently illegal in China). Perhaps the SMA could function as a sort of legal trust – meaning if he were to be targeted, he could claim that he does not manage or have direct ownership of those assets.
As a side note, it makes Valkyrie a bit suspicious as well. The 500 million worth of Bitcoin from Sun accounted for 90% of Valkyrie Digital Assets as of August 2022. Valkyrie also has a TRON Trust. Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald sits on the board at Huobi (an exchange now owned by Justin Sun).
Again, it seems to draw parallels to the relationship between FTX and Alameda.
Does Valkyrie need to worry if Sun does decide to move to Hong Kong? If he took his money out of their system it would be devastating.
