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Hours after US President Donald Trump hosted a dinner with holders of his cryptocurrency token $TRUMP, the White House has not released a complete list of attendees, which reportedly included major industry players from overseas. But Justin Sun, the top holder of $TRUMP and founder of the blockchain company Tron, has not been shy about his participation.
“The gala dinner we had today I think sends a very strong signal,” Sun told the South China Morning Post in a video interview after the dinner. “I think it’s really going to change a lot of people’s opinions about crypto policymaking here … [It] will have a global impact.”
Trump held the dinner on Thursday night at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington with the biggest holders of his so-called memecoin, which he launched in January, three days before his inauguration for a second presidential term. The top 220 holders of $TRUMP were eligible to join the dinner, but the full guest list has not been released, with the White House calling it a private event.
The dinner has been criticised as a means for people to pay for influence with and access to the US president. Sun’s 1,432,003.302 $TRUMP tokens, bought in different batches in recent months, are currently worth roughly US$19.8 million, according to CoinGecko data. The token’s value plummeted about 15 per cent within hours of the dinner’s conclusion.
Sun said he did not have the opportunity to speak directly with the president, but he was excited to be a front-row witness to the “historic moment”.
The crypto entrepreneur, who made global headlines last year when he publicly ate a banana that was part of the artwork “Comedian” he bought for US$6.2 million, was quick to invest in Trump after his election in November.
He first invested US$30 million in Trump’s decentralised finance crypto firm World Liberty Financial, later raising it to US$75 million. The US Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently paused its lawsuit over claims of market manipulation related to Tron’s TRX token.
The crypto wallet address associated with Sun on the Trump memecoin leaderboard shows he began buying the tokens on January 19 and made its last purchase, worth around US$845,000, at midnight after the dinner, according to data from blockchain analysis platform Arkham Intelligence.
Even while pouring money into the US president’s businesses and expressing enthusiasm about a more friendly regulatory environment for crypto in the country, Sun said he expected moves in the US to also affect policy in China.
“I certainly believe it will have an impact on mainland China,” Sun said. “I see China watching US policy moves very, very closely … as the US and China have a rivalry like Zhou Yu versus Zhuge Liang,” he said, referring to the story of two competing commanders in the Chinese classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
“If one side sees the other side making efforts in one particular area, it will definitely think about following up,” Sun said. Trump’s gathering of crypto investors and innovators will push policymakers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and other jurisdictions to review their policy regarding crypto, he said.
The new stablecoin law passed on Wednesday in Hong Kong, where Sun resides, showed the urgency around regulating cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currency, according to the entrepreneur.
“The timing is a little bit coincidental,” Sun said. “I think the policymakers here feel some kind of urgency, [as if to] get this done quickly to be ahead of the world.”
The US Senate passed the Genius Act on Tuesday, which deals with the regulation of cryptocurrencies. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives before it can be signed into law by the president.
Hong Kong’s stablecoin bill requires issuers of these tokens in the city and issuers of Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoins globally to be licensed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Sun even sees an opportunity for yuan-backed stablecoins in the city.
“In the future, it couldn’t be ruled out that Hong Kong could develop a stablecoin based on offshore yuan,” he said.
Regarding criticism over the idea of people buying influence in the Trump administration, Sun said he could not speak for the US government concerning these perceptions. However, he suggested that bringing people across the industry together could help drive innovation.
“I think the real result is very simple. We see more and more innovators, developers and entrepreneurs move to the United States because of the Trump administration’s policies,” he said. “If you’re going to do something pretty quickly and decisively, it’s going to drive controversy. But at the same time, it’s going to deliver results.”
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