Justin Sun

Justin Sun (Chinese: 孙宇晨; pinyin: Sūn Yǔchén; born July 30, 1990) is a Chinese-born Grenadian cryptocurrency entrepreneur and business executive. He is the founder of Tron, a blockchain DAO ecosystem. Sun once served as Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.

Justin Sun
孙宇晨
Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization
In office
2021–2022
Personal details
BornJuly 30, 1990 (1990-07-30) (age 32)
Xining, Qinghai, China
CitizenshipGrenada
Alma materPeking University
University of Pennsylvania
Occupation
  • Diplomat
  • Entrepreneur
  • Businessman
Known forFounder of Tron DAO
Websitewww.hejustinsun.com

Early life and education

Sun was born in 1990.[1] He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in history from Peking University[2] and a Master of Arts degree in East Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania.[3]

At University of Pennsylvania Sun became interested in cryptocurrency and invested early in bitcoin.[4] He studied at Jack Ma's Zhejiang Hupan Entrepreneurship Research Center.[5] He became the cover figure of Yazhou Zhoukan in 2011[4] and a Davos Global Shaper in 2014.[6]

Career

Sun was the cover figure of Yazhou Zhoukan in 2011 and Davos Global Youth Leaders in 2014. In 2015 he was named CNTV's most noteworthy new entrepreneur, and was named in Forbes China 30 Under 30 from 2015 through 2017.[7]

In September 2017, his company Tron held an initial coin offering (ICO) for the TRN 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.[8]

In 2018, Sun acquired the company BitTorrent, Inc (later renamed Rainberry) for $140 million. 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, totalling about 300 bitcoin, despite the objections of Poloniex employees.[8]

Sun placed the winning $4.6 million bid to have a private meal with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in June 2019,[9][10] before canceling it to widespread surprise.[11][12] The dinner with Buffett eventually occurred in early 2020.[13] Sun met with Buffett, a critic of cryptocurrency, at the Happy Hollow Club in Omaha, Nebraska, on January 23, 2020.[14] Sun was joined by other cryptocurrency executives, including leaders of Litecoin and eToro.[14] At the dinner, Sun gifted Buffett a phone with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.[15] The money from the charity auction benefited the Glide Foundation, which Buffett's late wife Susan introduced to Buffett after volunteering there.[16]

Sometime between 2018 and 2020, Sun acquired a Maltese residency card as a result of investing in the country.[8]

On 11 March 2021, Sun was the underbidder on a $69M auction at Christie's New York of the Beeple non-fungible token (NFT) collection Everydays: the First 5000 Days.[17]

In October 2021, Sun participated in a $65 million funding round in Animoca.[18]

In December 2021, Sun announced he was the winner of the New Shepard auction with a bid of $28 million to be the first paying passenger to fly on the Blue Origin vehicle in July 2021. He was not able to fly on this July 2021 mission due to a scheduling conflict. However he purchased (supposedly with the $28 million auction bid, which he paid to Blue Origin in 2021) privately a full flight of New Shepard for himself and intends to select five other participants to fly with him into space in late 2022.[19]

In December 2021, Justin Sun retired as a CEO of TRON to become a diplomat for Grenada.[1][20][21]

In June 2022, Sun was relieved of his position as Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization following the electoral defeat of the New National Party.[22]

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 Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BBT) tokens, alleging that Sun had engaged in wash trading in the secondary market for TRX in order to buoy its price.[23][24][25] 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, with all those other than Soulja Boy and Mahone settling with the FTC for more $400,000, without admitting or denying the charges.[26][27][23] 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.[8]

References
  1. Foust, Jeff (December 23, 2021). "Crypto entrepreneur to go to space on New Shepard". Space News.
  2. 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. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  3. Zou, Cornelia (July 2, 2019). "Why Justin Sun has 1.3 million Weibo followers". South China Morning Post. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  4. Li, Jane (July 21, 2019). "Crypto-bro Justin Sun represents everything Warren Buffett "can't even" about crypto". Quartz. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  5. Fulton, Michaela (June 17, 2019). "5 things to know about Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun". South China Morning Post. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  6. "30 under 30". Forbes.
  7. "30 under 30". Forbes.
  8. Harland-Dunaway, Christopher (March 9, 2022). "The many escapes of Justin Sun". The Verge. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  9. Lam, Katherine (June 3, 2019). "Winning bidder of Warren Buffett's private lunch revealed as Tron CEO Justin Sun". FOXBusiness. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  10. "Chinese blockchain entrepreneur Justin Sun won Warren Buffett's charity lunch with $4.6M bid". June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  11. 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. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  12. Russolillo, Stella Yifan Xie and Steven (July 25, 2019). "'Excessive Self-Promotion': Justin Sun Apologizes After Postponing Charity Lunch With Warren Buffett". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  13. GmbH, finanzen net. "Warren Buffett finally had his $4.6 million meal with crypto boss Justin Sun | Currency News | Financial and Business News | Markets Insider". markets.businessinsider.com. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  14. Mohamed, Theron (February 7, 2020). "Warren Buffett finally had his $4.6 million meal with crypto boss Justin Sun". Business Insider. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  15. Crippen, Alex (February 6, 2020). "Cryptocurrency entrepreneur finally gets his $4.6 million meal with Buffett". CNBC. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  16. Ablan, Jennifer; Stempel, Jonathan (June 2, 2019). "Crypto pioneer Justin Sun pays $4.57 million for Warren Buffett lunch". Reuters. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  17. Sun, Justin [@justinsuntron] (March 11, 2021). "1/12 I participated in the @ChristiesInc #NFT auction for Everydays: the First 5,000 Days by @Beeple. My final effective bid was $60 MIL (plus fee $69 MIL). However, was outbid by another buyer in the last 20 secs by $250k. Difference was less than 0.3% of the total price" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2021 – via Twitter.
  18. "Ubisoft, Sequoia China Help NFT Creator Hit $2 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg.com. October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  19. Crypto pioneer Justin Sun plans space trip with Blue Origin
  20. Kharif, Olga (December 17, 2021). "Crypto Wunderkind Justin Sun Says He's Becoming a Diplomat for Grenada". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 11, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. Yang, Yueqi (December 22, 2021). "Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun Tackles Space Next With Blue Origin Flight". Bloomberg.
  22. Straker, Linda (March 23, 2023). "SEC charges Justin Sun, former WTO Ambassador for Grenada". Loop News. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  23. "SEC.gov | SEC Charges Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun and his Companies for Fraud and Other Securities Law Violations". www.sec.gov. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  24. Wigglesworth, Robin (March 22, 2023). "SEC goes after Justin Sun, Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy". Financial Times.
  25. 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.
  26. Mueller, Julia (March 22, 2023). "SEC charges Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul with crypto violations". The Hill. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  27. Hipes, Patrick (March 22, 2023). "Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Lil Yachty Among Celebrities Charged In SEC Crypto Case". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.