6 months ago
Everyone ever has a batch to accidental astir Justin Sun, but the laminitis of Tron, the 3rd largest blockchain by marketplace headdress according to <a href="https://defillama.com/chains" target="_blank">DeFi Llama data</a>, tends to disregard the critics and absorption connected BUIDLing.
It's pugnacious to constitute a communicative astir Sun without archetypal mentioning his wealth, however.
On-chain information tracked by Arkham Intelligence shows that Sun's crypto holdings are up by astir $700 cardinal this year, from $1.5 cardinal astatine the commencement of the twelvemonth to <a href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/entity/justin-sun" target="_blank">$2.2 cardinal today</a>, making him crypto's richest idiosyncratic (at slightest identified person; Satoshi whitethorn person much wealth).
This illustration is portion of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For each of this year's nominees, click present [ADD LINK BEFORE PUBLISHING].
Much of this is owed to <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/04/tron-s-trx-rockets-to-record-highs-above-0-4" target="_blank">TRX's meteoric rise</a> and the surge successful <a href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins/Tron" target="_blank">stablecoins issued connected the chain</a>, an magnitude that present stands astatine much than $60 billion. For a little time, <a href="https://tether.to/en/transparency/?tab=usdt" target="_blank">there was much USDT connected Tron than connected Ethereum</a>.
Certainly, immoderate of this wealthiness goes to absurdities, specified arsenic erstwhile <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/arts/design/cattelan-banana-sothebys-auction.html" target="_blank">Sun ate an overpriced banana</a> (although possibly you didn't <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/arts/design/a-critics-defense-of-cattelan-banana-.html" target="_blank">get that the joke</a> was mocking the old-wealth Art Basel socialite crowd). But there's besides a seriousness to his investing.
The wBTC Controversy
Over the summer, BiT Global, a Hong Kong-based custodian that's partially owned by Justin Sun, signed an statement with BitGo to jointly custody wrapped bitcoin (wBTC), 1 of crypto's astir important sources of liquidity.
Of course, <a href="https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/makerdao-urged-to-ditch-wrapped-bitcoin/" target="_blank">plenty was written</a> astir however atrocious this would beryllium for wBTC due to the fact that of Sun’s engagement and the dangers of centralization. As a result, large DeFi protocols <u>threatened to region wBTC</u> from their platforms, and Coinbase <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/11/20/coinbase-delists-wrapped-bitcoin-wbtc-citing-listing-concerns" target="_blank">delisted it</a> soon aft the speech launched its ain wrapped bitcoin merchandise connected Base.
However, arsenic BitGo CEO Mike Belshe pointed retired <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/03/bitgo-ceo-says-wrapped-bitcoins-critics-arent-being-intellectually-honest-about-their-concerns" target="_blank">in an interrogation with CoinDesk</a>, the loudest critics of the tie-up aren't needfully being intellectually honest. Anyone who knows the technicalities of however wBTC works — oregon the ineligible spot operation that underlies it — could easy disregard the fearfulness that Sun would person outsized power of it.
Sun is an casual target, and wBTC's critics took vantage of an accidental to sound him down portion pumping their ain rivals to wBTC.
Despite wBTC’s value arsenic a cardinal portion of crypto infrastructure and a root of liquidity, however, <a href="https://x.com/loi_luu/status/1823376025474285904" target="_blank">its gross exemplary based connected the minting and redemption of the underlying asset</a> earns BitGo little and little wealth each year. BitGo truthful needed caller partners to standard wBTC, and Sun, with his heavy pockets, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/10/23/justin-sun-might-be-good-for-wrapped-bitcoin-says-new-custodians-director" target="_blank">was the 1 to bash that.</a>
Unfortunately, this nuance got mislaid successful the ether — oregon successful this case, the TRX.
However, thing — not Sun’s loudest critics nor adjacent the SEC — seems to beryllium capable to sound him disconnected his perch arsenic the king of crypto and DeFi. And with the incoming Trump administration's pro-crypto orientation, Sun's relation atop the Web3 nutrient concatenation present lone appears to person been cemented.
This illustration is portion of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For each of this year's nominees, click here.
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