Justin Sun Reflects on Early Crypto Days: Bitcoin at $1 and Free DOGE

Reflecting on the early days of his career, TRON founder Justin Sun shared insights about the cryptocurrency market in 2012 during a conversation with Mario Nawfal.

JUSTIN SUN: “I BOUGHT BITCOIN AT $1 AND WORKED ON THE IDEA OF SMART CONTRACTS”

“I got into crypto in 2012, Bitcoin was less than $1.

You could even buy Bitcoin from Taobao, an eBay e-commerce platform in China.

Ripple Labs at the time, started a new company, a new token name… https://t.co/j27tRQASr6 pic.twitter.com/b1EnXVMO95

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 7, 2024

“[Back then] I was buying Bitcoin for $1 and working on the idea of smart contracts,” the entrepreneur stated. 

Sun also mentioned that the first cryptocurrency was even sold on Taobao, an eBay-like e-commerce platform in China.

At that time, the future TRON founder joined Ripple Labs, where he worked on creating the XRP token. By 2014, Sun and his team focused on a new vision of blockchain technology that supports smart contracts.

At the time, smart contracts were a completely innovative idea. None of the existing cryptocurrencies had implemented such a solution, but Sun believed in this feature and thought it could enhance the flexibility and use cases of blockchain.

In 2015, Ethereum emerged, successfully raising funds through an ICO in which the entrepreneur participated. This confirmed his belief in smart contracts, and he began developing his own solution—TRON.

Sun also recalled losing “at least $50 million by sending DOGE to various people.” 

“I had a lot of DOGE. Back then, we mostly saw Dogecoin as a joke. We sent DOGE to our friends for free. […] I gave away about 5-10 million DOGE to everyone I knew,” he added. 

Additionally, the businessman believes that NFTs are still “evolving,” comparing them to a recently purchased banana for $6 million. He plans to send Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork “Comedian” to Mars via SpaceX or gift it to Donald Trump.

“I invest in many NFT projects. In crypto art, in all of this. NFTs are still fine,” Sun noted. 

In late November 2024, the TRON founder purchased 2 billion WLFI tokens from the World Liberty Financial crypto platform for $30 million. He became the largest investor in the project, which is associated with Donald Trump’s family.