Justin Sun made millions when he founded the TRON cryptocurrency in 2017.
So, what’s the story behind his success and what is his net worth?
Who is Justin Sun?
Justin Sun was born in 1990 in the Chinese city of Xining.
He grew up in the country and studied history at Peking University before moving to America to undertake a Master of Arts in East Asian studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
It was while studying in the US that Sun first gained an interest in cryptocurrency, from which he would go on to make his money.
Upon graduating in 2013, Sun joined the blockchain firm Ripple Labs as a chief representative and adviser in Greater China.
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He remained at the company for two years before leaving to create Peiwo, a mobile audio content app, which aimed to become China’s answer to Snapchat.
The app matches and connects users by analysing 10-second voice samples along with their interests. Eight years after inception it has now matched more than 4 billion chats and is China’s largest audio content community.
Sun’s success with Peiwo saw him named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia list from 2015 to 2017.
But two years after founding the company, Sun decided it was time for change again. In 2017 he set up the blockchain firm Tron and launched the TRX token.
Sun said that the blockchain company was “dedicated to building the infrastructure for a truly decentralised Internet”.
It was created with the aim of allowing people to create content that can be shared and traded – from text to pictures, audio and video.
The initial coin offering (ICO) for the TRN token happened just a few days before the Chinese government banned ICOs, raising $70 million.
Sun is believed to have been aware of the impending ban and pushed for the sale to occur before the ban could be announced. He quit China shortly afterwards, leaving for the United States.
In July 2018, TRON acquired BitTorrent, a pioneer of decentralised services with nearly 100 million monthly active users for around $126 million.
Rapidly growing in popularity, the blockchain firm became a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), meaning that decisions on how it operates are made by its members rather than centralised management.
In December 2021 Sun resigned as CEO of TRON in order to full implement the DAO structure.
After stepping back from management of the blockchain company, Sun took a rather surprising career move. The Chinese national was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization.
Sun said that he would use his role to help promote cryptocurrency nd blockchain technology. He remained in the role for a little over a year.
In what has appeared to be an otherwise incredible upward-trajectory career, in 2023 Sun found himself in legal trouble.
In March 2023 America’s Securities and Exchange Commission announced it was charging Sun with fraud and trading unregistered securities in relation to TRON.
While the Chinese national did not formally respond to the charges, he posted a cryptic message on social media that suggested his followers should ignore the “fake news”.
What is Justin Sun’s net worth?
Justin Sun has a net worth of $150 million. The entrepreneur’s crypto wallet is publicly available, making it easy to track how much money he has.
As of June 2023, his portfolio includes $72 million worth of USDD, $4.7 million of TRX and $1.5 million of USDD_t, among a vast number of smaller crypto holdings.
Sun first became a millionaire when he launched TRON in 2017.
His net worth peaked in 2022 at $500 million, but the crypto market’s collapse saw him lose out.