{"id":38035,"date":"2024-10-22T12:57:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T09:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=38035"},"modified":"2025-08-30T00:51:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:51:46","slug":"justin-sun-the-biography-career-and-crypto-fortune-of-trons-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/justin-sun-the-biography-career-and-crypto-fortune-of-trons-founder\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Sun: the biography, career and crypto fortune of TRON\u2019s founder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Early years and education<\/h2>\n

Justin Sun was born in 1990 in sparsely populated Qinghai province in west-central China.<\/p>\n

The future TRON<\/a> founder earned a Bachelor of Arts in History at Peking University and a Master\u2019s in East Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. While studying at one of America\u2019s oldest institutions, he took an interest in cryptocurrencies and became an early bitcoin investor.<\/p>\n

Sun also attended the Hupan business school under Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma. In 2011 he appeared on the cover of Yazhou Zhoukan, and in 2014 joined the \u201cYoung Leaders of Davos\u201d programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ripple and TRON<\/h2>\n

In late 2013 Justin Sun joined Ripple Labs<\/a> as an adviser and chief representative in China.<\/p>\n

In July 2017 he registered the non-profit TRON Foundation in Singapore. That September it conducted an ICO<\/a> for TRX, billed as an \u201cEthereum killer\u201d, just days before Chinese authorities banned such campaigns.<\/p>\n

According to The Verge<\/a>, Sun knew about the forthcoming ban and rushed the token sale to precede the official announcement. Soon after, he left China for the United States.<\/p>\n

The ICO raised about $70m. The white paper, however, drew a wave of criticism\u2014the crypto community identified<\/a> borrowed sections from other blockchain projects without proper citations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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BitTorrent, Poloniex and Huobi<\/h2>\n

In June 2018 Sun acquired BitTorrent, known for its eponymous P2P protocol, for $140m. Under his leadership the firm launched the L2 solution<\/a> BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) and a native token, BTT, with a supply of 990 trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In late 2019 the entrepreneur became the owner of the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. According to The Verge<\/a>, in 2021 the TRON founder demanded 300 BTC that users had mistakenly sent to wrong addresses, despite staff objections.<\/p>\n

In November 2023 hackers stole $120m from Poloniex, and Sun offered to let them keep 5%, or about $6.5m, if they returned the rest within a week. On 17 November the exchange\u2019s team announced the resumption of deposits and withdrawals.<\/p>\n

Once a top trading platform, at the time of writing it ranks 134th<\/a> among CEX<\/span> on CoinGecko. Its trust score is 4\/10, and its normalised daily trading volume is roughly $45m. Alongside blue chips like bitcoin and Ethereum, Poloniex lists many lesser-known crypto-assets, including projects from the TRON ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Between 2018 and 2020 Sun obtained<\/a> Maltese residency through investment.<\/p>\n

In October 2021 the TRON founder took part in a $65m funding round for Hong Kong\u2019s Animoca, the developer of blockchain games such as The Sandbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By February 2023 Sun became<\/a> the largest private holder of stETH via Lido<\/a>, with a balance of $500m.<\/p>\n

In August 2024 he launched<\/a> the SunPump platform, allowing users to create their own memecoins.<\/p>\n

Justin Sun is also associated with HTX (formerly Huobi)\u2014in comments to ForkLog, representatives of the exchange said he had joined the platform\u2019s advisory board. The venue continues to hold its own in the market, though it has long since fallen out of the top ten of CoinGecko\u2019s ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The arrival of the USDD stablecoin<\/h2>\n

In April 2022 Sun announced an algorithmic stablecoin<\/a> called USDD, backed by the native TRX token and a $10bn reserve of highly liquid assets. The \u201cstablecoin\u2019s\u201d operating model initially mirrored that of UST in the Terra ecosystem, which soon collapsed.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhen the price of USDD falls below $1, users and arbitrageurs can send 1 USDD into the system and receive the equivalent of $1 in TRX. When the price of USDD exceeds $1, converting the equivalent of $1 in TRX into 1 USDD becomes advisable. Regardless of market volatility, the protocol will maintain the stability of USDD\u2019s peg to $1 at a 1:1 ratio in a decentralised way, using algorithms,\u201d the entrepreneur explained.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TRON DAO took over management of USDD and the provision of its \u201crisk-free\u201d annual yield at 30%.<\/p>\n

Former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, now awaiting<\/a> extradition from Montenegro to South Korea, voiced support for the \u201cstablecoin\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cDecentralised economies deserve decentralised money \u2014 every blockchain will run on decentralised stablecoins,\u201d he predicted.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

USDD launched on 5 May 2022. Beyond the TRON network, the asset also became available on Ethereum and BNB Chain via the BTTC cross-chain protocol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amid UST\u2019s loss of its peg and Terra\u2019s wider troubles, TRON DAO Reserve purchased BTC and TRX worth $61m to support the algorithmic stablecoin USDD.<\/p>\n

Justin Sun soon pledged $2bn to prevent a collapse of the \u201cstablecoin\u201d. Commenting on Terra\u2019s failure, he said the TRON ecosystem would not abandon USDD. He also stressed he was not involved in destabilising UST, which, in his words, was \u201ckilled by overly rapid growth\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A shift in USDD\u2019s collateral model<\/h2>\n

In June 2022 the TRON team announced a move to an \u201covercollateralised\u201d model for the algorithmic stablecoin USDD to avoid a TerraUSD-style collapse.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis was in the plan, but Terra\/LUNA definitely sped up and reprioritised for our team,\u201d Sun stressed.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"USDD_collateral\"
USDD\u2019s collateral level with TRX and USDT reserves at ~230%. Data: TRON DAO Reserve<\/a> as of 20.10.2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the change in model, that same month USDD lost its U.S. dollar peg and fell to $0.97 amid a crypto-market slump.<\/p>\n

Thanks in large part to additional collateral of 700m USDC, as well as BTC and TRX worth $50m, parity with the dollar was restored.<\/p>\n

In December that year, USDD again slipped to $0.97. To stabilise the system, TRON Foundation allocated $1.45bn.<\/p>\n

In August 2024 USDD developers quietly removed<\/a> from the asset\u2019s reserves an address holding roughly 12,000 BTC. Sun did not comment on the disappearance of the bitcoins, but acknowledged that a collateral ratio \u201cof more than 300%\u201d is \u201cnot a very efficient use of capital\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing USDD ranks 111th by market capitalisation on CoinGecko. Even so, it remains one of the largest in its segment, behind only USDT, USDC, DAI, FDUSD and USDE.<\/p>\n

\"CoinGecko_stables\"
Stablecoin rankings. Data: CoinGecko<\/a> as of 20.10.2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Dinner with Buffett<\/h2>\n

In February 2020 Justin Sun finally met billionaire Warren Buffett, a meeting long in the making.<\/p>\n

The TRON founder paid a record $4.5m to attend the charity dinner, which was also attended by Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, eToro chief Yoni Assia, Huobi CFO Chris Lee and Binance Charity Foundation head Helen Hai.<\/p>\n

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(1\/12) Most delicious meal ever! Thks @WarrenBuffett<\/a> for taking us to Happy Hollow Club! $4.56 MIL for a $515.05 dinner was money well spent! The insights I received are priceless. I enjoyed every bite with my friends @SatoshiLite<\/a> @ChrisLEE_Crypto @HelenHaiyu<\/a> @yoniassia<\/a>! pic.twitter.com\/tSQirSZY2e<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 H.E. Justin Sun?(hiring) (@justinsuntron) February 6, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n