Chinese-born crypto billionaire who founded the Tron and BitTorrent crypto tokens. He served as Grenada's trade representative to the World Trade Organisation, a diplomatic post he stepped down from in 2023 after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of fraud—specifically, issuing unregistered securities, manipulating markets by "wash trading" to make his tokens look active, and paying celebrities to endorse them without disclosing that they were being paid. He was afraid to set foot in America lest he be arrested. The case was settled in March 2025, less than four months after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, with a $10m fine and no admission of wrongdoing. The head of enforcement at the SEC resigned eleven days later.
Mr Sun was the first major backer of World Liberty Financial, buying $75m-worth of its tokens beginning in November 2024—less than three weeks after Trump's election victory. His purchase helped the project gain momentum. Three-quarters of the proceeds of any token sales flowed to a Trump-linked entity.
In April 2026 Mr Sun filed a federal lawsuit in California against World Liberty Financial, alleging his tokens had been frozen even after a blanket restriction on selling was lifted for other buyers in September 2025. He claims this has cost him $276m as the tokens have since dropped in value. The lawsuit also alleges that his voting rights on the project's governance were stripped, and that the firm threatened to "permanently destroy" his tokens by burning them. According to the suit, the retaliation began after Mr Sun refused World Liberty's demand that he buy $200m-worth of its new stablecoin and promote it on the Tron network.
Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree."