Justin Sun, the Crypto Entrepreneur Who Now Owns a $100,000 Trump-Branded Watch, Is No Stranger to the High Life

Sun's early life and education

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun is now rocking a $100,000 Trump-branded watch on his wrist, but the billionaire is no stranger to the high life.

Sun, 34, was one of 220 top backers of President Donald Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, who were invited to a special dinner with the president on May 22.

At the event, Sun said he was gifted a Trump Tourbillon watch, which sells for $100,000 — another of the Trump family’s private business interests in addition to cryptocurrency.

According to Forbes’ real-time net worth tracker, the 34-year-old founder of Tron is estimated to be worth around $8.5 billion.

Here’s everything to know about Sun — from his legal troubles to his purchase of a duct-taped banana.

Sun's early life and education

Sun grew up in a rural province of China and left home at a young age to study the strategy game “Go” in Wuhan, The Verge reported.

Sun graduated from Peking University with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2011. Two years later, he earned a master’s degree in political economy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sun then attended Hupan University — a Chinese business school started by Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma in 2015 — where he wrote a thesis on the blockchain industry, titled “The Birth of a Decentralized Internet.”

Sun was the youngest member of Hupan’s inaugural class, which included 30 students whom Ma recruited because he believed they could revolutionize the Chinese business world, the South China Morning Post reported. Sun graduated from Hupan in 2018.

Sun's oldest Instagram photo shows him receiving a certificate from Ma. The caption reads, "Inspired by the best to shape the future for the better. "

Sun's rise in the crypto world

Sun worked at San Francisco-based crypto company, Ripple Labs, a cryptocurrency startup that has received backing from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and other blue-chip investors.

In 2013, Sun founded a social chat room app called Peiwo. The app matched users with each other based on their interests and 10-second audio clips. However, China ultimately kicked Peiwo off the Android and Apple app stores and shut it down for disrupting “socialist values,” The Verge reported.

In 2017, Sun founded Tron, a blockchain company with its own cryptocurrency that is "dedicated to building the infrastructure for a truly decentralized internet." Tron says its network has over 308 million users on the blockchain and has had over 10.4 billion transactions.

Less than a year later, Tron acquired BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-sharing service, for a reported $126 million.

In 2022, Sun joined the Global Advisory Board of cryptocurrency exchange HTX, then known as Huobi Global.

Personal life and Warren Buffett

Sun has amassed more than 3.8 million followers on X and 240,000 Instagram followers, where he has posted pictures of himself posing with celebrities such as Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

Forbes included Sun in its 30 under 30 Asia list for Consumer Technology in 2017, and more recently, the outlet featured Sun as its digital daily cover in March of this year.

In 2019, Sun bid $4.57 million on an eBay-sponsored charity lunch with Warren Buffett. Sun said he planned to use the meal to convert Buffett, a notorious skeptic of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, into a true believer. Buffett has said bitcoin has "no unique value" and will ultimately become worthless, and derided it as a "delusion" and "probably rat poison squared."

Sun postponed the dinner with Buffett, citing kidney stones, which sparked conspiracy theories that he was being pressured by China. But months later, Sun finally had his dinner with Buffett in January 2020, inviting eToro founder and CEO Yoni Assia, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, and other crypto advocates to dine with them.

Legal troubles and investment in World Liberty Financial

In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Sun and three of his companies — Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry.

The federal agency accused Sun of offering and selling crypto asset securities without proper registration. Sun is also facing allegations of fraud for manipulating the market price of his cryptocurrency, TRX.

Sun was additionally charged with not disclosing how much he compensated celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy to promote his cryptocurrency, which would have violated federal securities laws.

In December 2024, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, making him the largest investor in