Portrait of Justin Sun

Rank #417

Justin Sun

Net worth $8.5B

Cryptocurrency · St. Kitts and Nevis

Born
Jul 30, 1990
Age
35
Source
Cryptocurrency
Residence
Hong Kong
Citizenship
St. Kitts and Nevis
Marital status
Single
Children
0
Education

Net worth over time

Biography

  • Justin Sun has built a sprawling crypto empire, anchored by the Tron blockchain, alongside exchanges Poloniex and HTX, and peer-to-peer file-sharer BitTorrent.
  • Born in China, Sun read a 2012 article about Bitcoin while studying at the University of Pennsylvania and became an early adopter.
  • He worked for Ripple before creating Tron in 2017.
  • Known for publicity stunts, in 2024 he spent $6.2 million at Sotheby's for a conceptual art piece: a banana duct-taped to a wall. He then ate the banana.
  • He pumped $75 million to President Donald Trump's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, in 2024.
  • In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission paused a market manipulation investigation into Sun and his companies.
  • Growing up in China's Guangdong province, Sun learned English vernacular by watching episodes of "The Apprentice."
  • Sun was once the World Trade Organization ambassador for the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada and is prime minister of the Free Republic of Liberland "micronation."