Donald Trump

World

Donald Trump Jr.

The founder of the Tron blockchain, Justin Sun, has become the largest investor in Donald Trump’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial, after buying $30 million worth of its tokens.
“We are thrilled to invest $30 million in World Liberty Financial as its largest investor,” Sun wrote in a Nov. 25 X <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1861121947372773545" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">post</a>. “TRON is committed to making America great again and leading innovation.”
Before Sun’s post, a wallet that Etherscan tagged as owned by the Sun-controlled crypto exchange HTX, formerly Huobi, was seen <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://etherscan.io/tx/0x0560495eb3986a085e7f595302f1c35297acbe60aab9c4405664c3ccfb7601cc" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">purchasing</a> 2 billion World Liberty Financial (WLFI) tokens worth $0.015 apiece.
<figure>
 <img alt="Justin Sun has just become Trump crypto project’s biggest investor" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-11/019365fa-d09d-7d0b-9711-cec1cc201b1c" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1861121947372773545" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1861121947372773545">Justin Sun</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
WLFI sales have <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-world-liberty-financial-token-crash" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">been sluggish</a> since it launched in mid-October, with investors turned off by the project restricting sales to non-US persons and US-accredited investors, along with making the tokens nontransferable — meaning they can’t be sold.
Just $20 million worth of WLFI had been sold before Sun’s buy, pushing total sales to $52 million, still only 17% of World Liberty’s lofty $300 million token sale goal.
But it now means that Trump and his family will start getting paid. The project’s “gold paper” — what it called <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-crypto-token-sale-flops-site-outages" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">its white paper</a> — says the president-elect’s company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, is entitled to 75% of net revenues after the project makes $30 million, which it now has.
“This sizable purchase of WLF tokens underscores the early success of this project,” World Liberty Financial co-founder Zak Folkman told Cointelegraph. “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.”
<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/who-is-donald-trump" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Donald Trump</a> is listed as the platform’s “chief crypto advocate,” while his sons Eric, Barron and Donald Trump Jr. are all “Web3 ambassadors.” The incoming president ran a campaign promising to make the US the world’s “crypto capital” and to reel in regulatory oversight of the industry.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-voters-us-elections-money-politics-trump-harris" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">What role did crypto voters play in the 2024 US election?</a>
Meanwhile, Sun and <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/what-is-tron-trx-and-how-does-it-work-a-beginners-guide" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Tron</a> have their own troubles with US regulators, having <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-court-issues-summons-to-tron-s-justin-sun-threatens-default-judgment-if-no-response" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">been sued</a> by the Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2023, accused of selling the Tron (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/tron-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">TRX</a>) token as an unregistered security and wash-trading it to raise its price, allegations that Sun denies.
Just last week, on Nov. 21, Sun shared that he paid $6.2 million at auction for an artwork of <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/justin-sun-paid-6m-for-banana-art-eat-it" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">a banana taped to a wall</a> and planned to eat it.&nbsp;
TRX has dropped 5.5% in the past day to under $0.20. It’s up around 84% this year but is still about 15% off from its $0.23 peak it hit in January 2018.
Tron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/fbi-tokens-ai-crypto-wash-trades-is-it-legal/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Legal issues surround the FBI’s creation of fake crypto tokens</a>&nbsp;
Update (Nov. 26, 1:50 am UTC): This article has been updated to add a response from World Liberty Financial.

Justin Sun has just become Trump crypto project’s biggest investor

Cointelegraph

Other articles published on Nov 26, 2024

Weekly Article Recap: 11/11-11/15

Peter Analyzes Bitcoin and Altcoin Price Predictions

Best Investment Guide: Qubetics Offers $500-to-$200K ROI, Polygon Prepares for a Rally, and Heder...

Pump.fun Halts Livestreams Amid Surge of Disturbing Content

Cardano price suffers a harsh reversal as pro sees a path to $10

HECO Network to Cease Operations a Year After $87M Hack

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!