THE controversial China-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun has invested US$30 million in President-elect Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial, making him the largest investor in the decentralised finance (DeFi) project.
“The US is becoming the blockchain hub, and Bitcoin owes it to @realDonaldTrump!,” Sun, the founder of the cryptocurrency firm Tron, announced in a post on X on Monday (Nov 25). “Tron is committed to making America great again and leading innovation.” A spokesperson for Sun did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are excited about the momentum experienced by World Liberty Financial, and this sizeable purchase of WLF tokens underscores the early success of this project,” a spokesperson for World Liberty said. “Indeed, there have been several significant purchases in recent weeks, and we are confident in our future success as we build a platform that promotes freer and fairer finance. We expect more such developments to happen in the coming weeks and months.”
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Sun in March 2023 for allegedly violating securities rules. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, claims that Sun worked with companies he owns and controls to engineer the offer and sale of the unregistered securities. It also accuses the crypto entrepreneur of breaking antifraud and market manipulation rules. Sun has said in the past that he believes that an SEC court filing accusing him and several of his firms of violating securities rules “lacks merit”.
Earlier this year, USDC stablecoin issuer Circle axed their support for the Tron blockchain – attributing the decision to a “risk management framework” that “continually assesses the suitability of all blockchains” for the stablecoin.
Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, launched a day after the former president emerged from a second apparent assassination attempt, is being promoted by Trump and his sons as part of the DeFi movement, which seeks to democratise access to financial services through the elimination of intermediaries. During World Liberty’s initial launch, the Wilmington, Delaware-based project planned to raise US$300 million at a US$1.5 billion valuation. However, it recently disclosed that its US$300 million offering of tokens is primarily being marketed offshore.
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World Liberty filed a notice with American regulators on the offering, stating that it “currently only plans” to sell US$30 million of tokens in the US. After reaching the US$30 million threshold, World Liberty will terminate the US offering, even though the company has some US$288.5 million of tokens available for sale, according to the document.
Trump has been a recent and vocal proponent of digital assets such as Bitcoin. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) is in talks to buy the digital-asset marketplace Bakkt Holdings, citing sources familiar with the discussions who asked not to be named sharing private information. Trump owns more than 50 per cent of TMTG, which operates Truth Social, a social media site.
Donald Trump is listed as World Liberty Financial’s chief crypto advocate, while his sons, Eric, Donald Jr and Barron Trump are named as its Web3 ambassadors. The project also includes Paxos co-founder Rich Teo as its stablecoin and payment lead, as well as Luke Pearson, a senior research cryptographer for Polychain.
Just two days ago, Sun announced that he paid US$6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall, as part of a piece of work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.
The price of Tron’s TRX token dropped about 5 per cent to around 20 US cents on Monday. It has climbed about 87 per cent this year. BLOOMBERG