The crypo dealer who went viral for paying $6.2 million for a work of art consisting of a banana channel taped to the wall — and then eating the banana — has also invested in President-elect Donald Trump.
Chinese-born TRON founder Justin Sun announced on X last Monday that he had purchased $30 million worth of crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, which Trump calls his “Chief Crypto Advocate.”
Additionally, sons Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Barron Trump are named “Web3 Ambassadors” for the company.
“The US is becoming the blockchain hub, and Bitcoin has @realDonaldTrump to thank for that!” Sun wrote in the post. “TRON is committed to making America great again and leading innovation. Let’s go!’
The Popular Information newsletter reported this on Monday that Sun’s investment tipped the balance in a way that would directly benefit the Trumps.
The way World Liberty Financial was set up was that the company planned to sell $300 million worth of crypto tokens.
Before Sun’s $30 million investment, only $22 million of the tokens had been sold.
A “golden paper” released in October explained that he would hold “$30 million in initial net protocol revenues” in reserve… to cover operating costs, damages and liabilities.”
Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun is pictured Friday eating the banana that was part of the $6.2 million art installation he bought. Last week, he also invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial, a crypto company that directly benefits President-elect Donald Trump
After the reserve is met — entirely through Sun’s investment — a Trump-owned company called DT Marks DEFI LLC will receive 75 percent of the profits.
Popular Information’s Judd Legum crunched the numbers and found that $24 million worth of World Liberty Financial tokens had been sold as of December 1, netting the newly elected president $18 million.
Furthermore, a day after Sun announced his $30 million infusion, the Chinese national was named an advisor to Trump’s World Liberty Financial.
“Justin’s insights and experience will be key as we continue to innovate and grow,” the company’s X account said.
In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission had sued Sun and the three companies he owns, with fraud and other securities law violations.
The SEC accused Sun and his companies of “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX (Tronix) through extensive wash trading, which involves the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to give the impression cause the asset to be traded without any actual change in its beneficial effects. property, and for orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to promote TRX (Tronix) and BTT (BitTorrent) without disclosing their compensation.”
Essentially, Sun was accused of giving the impression that there was a lot of interest in the crypto tokens he was selling, but the trade was actually manufactured by Sun.
President-elect Donald Trump is benefiting financially from an investment from Chinese-born crypto dealer Justin Sun, who made waves by spending millions to purchase a banana as a work of art and then eating it at a press conference
Eight celebrities were ensnared in the lawsuit, including actress Lindsey Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo and Lil Yachty.
Six of the celebrities, including Lohan, Paul, Ne-Yo, pornographic film performer Michele Mason and Lil Yachty, quickly agreed to pay thousands of dollars to settle the case.
Soulja Boy and pop singer Austin Mahone did not immediately reach a settlement.
Last week, the head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, said he would resign on January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration.
Trump had previously said he would fire Gensler on “day one” after the chairman took legal action against crypto companies.
Gensler told the BBC in September that the crypto industry was “full of fraud, peddlers and scammers.”