Justin Sun is a Chinese-born Kittitian crypto billionaire and businessperson.
33 Facts About Justin Sun
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Justin Sun is the founder of TRON, a cryptocurrency with an associated blockchain DAO ecosystem and USDD, a stablecoin issued by TRON DAO Reserve.
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Justin Sun owns the crypto exchange Poloniex, and is affiliated with the crypto exchange HTX.
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Justin Sun served as Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization in Geneva from 2021 to 2023.
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In 2023, Justin Sun was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, who alleged that Justin Sun and his companies have engaged in fraudulent activity to inflate the price of the TRON and BTT tokens, as well as selling unregistered securities.
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Justin Sun holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in history from Peking University and a Master of Arts degree in East Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
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At the University of Pennsylvania, Justin Sun became interested in cryptocurrency and invested early in bitcoin.
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Justin Sun studied at Jack Ma's Zhejiang Hupan Entrepreneurship Research Center.
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Justin Sun became the cover figure of Yazhou Zhoukan in 2011 and a Davos Global Shaper in 2014.
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In late 2013, Justin Sun joined Ripple Labs as chief representative and adviser.
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Justin Sun founded the blockchain-based operating platform TRON and launched the TRX token in 2017.
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Justin Sun is best known for developing the BitTorrent protocol.
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The Verge alleged in 2021 that Justin 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.
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Justin Sun offered to let the hackers keep $6.5 million if they returned the rest of the money within 7 days.
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Sometime between 2018 and 2020, Justin Sun acquired a Maltese residency card as a result of investing in the country.
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In October 2021, Justin 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.
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In 2024, Justin Sun invested reportedly at least $75 million in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company associated with Donald Trump.
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The financial relationship between Trump and Justin Sun raised potential conflicts of interest, given that Justin Sun's companies were investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Justin Sun was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization in 2021.
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Justin Sun told Bloomberg he would use his role to advocate cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to countries and promote technology development in Grenada.
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Justin Sun said the Caribbean has "become a very good place for entrepreneurship" because of its close proximity to the US, with less strict regulations regarding cryptocurrency.
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In December 2021, Justin Sun retired as a CEO of TRON to become a diplomat for Grenada.
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In March 2023, Justin 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.
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In October 2024, Justin Sun was elected as a "Speaker of Congress" and appointed as "Prime Minister" of Liberland, a micronation that claims to own a small region on the Danube river floodplain border between Serbia and Croatia.
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Justin 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.
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In March 2023, Justin Sun was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for selling unregistered securities related to the sale and promotion of Tron and BitTorrent tokens, alleging that Justin 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.
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The Verge alleged that as of 2022, Justin Sun was under the investigation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the prosecutor's office for the Southern District of New York for potential criminal charges.
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Justin Sun placed the winning $4.6 million bid to have a private meal with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in June 2019, before canceling it to widespread surprise.
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Justin Sun met with Buffett, a critic of cryptocurrency, at the Happy Hollow Club in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 23,2020.
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Justin Sun was joined by other cryptocurrency executives, including leaders of Litecoin, eToro, Huobi, and Binance Charity Foundation.
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In December 2021, Justin 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.
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In November 2024, Justin 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 at an auction in New York.
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Justin Sun later pledged to buy 100,000 bananas from the New York street vendor who the banana was originally purchased from.