The controversial China-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun has invested $30 million in President-elect Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial, making him the largest investor in the decentralized finance project.
“The U.S. 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 Monday. “TRON is committed to making America great again and leading innovation.” A spokesperson for Sun didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We’re excited about the momentum experienced by World Liberty Financial, and this sizable purchase of WLF tokens underscores the early success of this project,” a spokesperson for World Liberty said in a statement. “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 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.
Read More: Stablecoin USDC Ditches Tron Network, Cites Risk Management
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 democratize access to financial services though the elimination of intermediaries. During World Liberty’s initial launch, the Wilmington, Delaware-based project planned to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. However, it recently disclosed that its $300 million offering of tokens is primarily being marketed offshore.
World Liberty filed a notice with American regulators on the offering, stating that it “currently only plans” to sell $30 million of tokens in the US. After reaching the $30 million threshold, World Liberty will terminate the US offering, even though the company has some $288.5 million of tokens available for sale, according to the document.
Trump has been a recent and vocal proponent of digital assets like Bitcoin. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. is in talks to buy the digital-asset marketplace Bakkt Holdings Inc., citing people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be named sharing private information. Trump owns more than 50% 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.
Read More: Trump’s World Liberty to Mainly Sell Digital Tokens Outside US
Just two days ago, Sun announced that he paid $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% to around 20 cents on Monday. It has climbed about 87% this year.