Justin Sun needs he might journey extra. However there’s an excessive amount of to do.
“There are too many exciting things happening in crypto every week,” he mentioned in a December interview with CoinDesk at residence in Hong Kong. “I don’t really take vacation time. It’s hard to get away for a week.”
If Sun did take an prolonged trip, it’d most likely be to Mars, he mentioned. However just for a two-way journey.
“I think the only thing [that] may change my mind on crypto is Mars exploration,” he mentioned.
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TRON’s founder says crypto buying and selling could be powerful on the pink planet as its distance from Earth means a major lag time.”I’m not going to die on Mars.”
But, it wouldn’t be as bad as trading on Coinbase in 2013. Those were the early days when order books were thin and before matching engines were invented.
“In 2013, should you needed to promote Bitcoin on Coinbase, they made you wait per week to seek out out if it bought,” he said. “You needed to set a value vary, and they’d notify you later concerning the sale and remaining value.”
“It was like being on Mars.”
All the things crypto
You’ll be able to see why Sun doesn’t have time for journey.
The TRON founder is relentless. Since founding the blockchain in 2017, Sun has established himself as one of the vital influential individuals in Asian crypto. His X account has 3.7 million followers. TRON has 125 million lively customers. Greater than $50 billion in USDT is traded on the community each day.
Round Sun, there is a universe of affiliated and suggested corporations, like HTX (change), BitGo (custody) and Rainberry (previously BitTorrent Inc., which has a crypto connection despite the fact that it is a P2P file-sharing service).
Nonetheless, when CoinDesk arrange an interview with Sun, the concept was to see if the face of DeFi in Asia would discuss one thing apart from crypto.
Absolutely there’s extra to the person than digital belongings, proper?
We gave up ten minutes in.
For Sun, every part in life touches crypto, and crypto touches every part in life.
Even artwork.
Sun, an avid collector, owns works by Picasso and Warhol. He not too long ago bought, and ate, a $6.2 million banana that was a part of an paintings referred to as “Comic,” which poked fun at the concept of modern, expensive art.
Which turned out to be a bitcoin metaphor.
“The banana taped to the wall is just not concerning the bodily paintings itself. It is a idea, a picture, quite than one thing bodily,” he said.
“Once I first realized about bitcoin, I assumed it was cool as a result of you may move customs with out anybody realizing you’re carrying wealth. It’s freedom. The banana has the identical impact.”
Except, if someone eats it, as Sun did.
“This sort of conceptual artwork is new to regulation. It’s not concerning the bodily piece. It’s concerning the idea,” he mentioned. “Regulators don’t know deal with it, similar to they don’t know deal with crypto. It doesn’t matter what legal guidelines or guidelines you impose, you may’t cease somebody from taping a banana to a wall.”
Gaming is not escapism
Back IRL, Sun has a soft spot for the Caribbean. Thanks to his obsession with Tropico, a world-building simulation game set in the Cold War tropics, it’s a region he visits as a virtual dictator under the game’s rules. But Sun prefers geopolitical neutrality.
“I run a impartial island, pleasing each the U.S. and the Soviet Union by giving every an island for his or her army bases,” he said. “As a result of, why not? They pay me for it.”
Sun says he’s a PC maxi, and not a console gamer. It’s Steam for him, not Xbox Live. Aside from Tropico, he’s a fan of the turn-based strategy game Civilization IV. He once played for 24 hours straight.
“Yet one more flip, yet one more flip,” he kept saying. He finds the game addicting because it reminds him of what he does in the real world.
Justin Sun isn’t universally adored in the world of crypto. But few can look away.
“Justin Sun is sort of a Game of Thrones episode,” the man himself says. “It doesn’t matter what you consider him, you could maintain watching.”
Recently, he riled bitcoiners through his investment in BitGo, which supports Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), a piece of trading infrastructure that allows the liquidity of bitcoin on DeFi.
Almost instantly after it was announced, Sun’s harshest critics came out of the woodworks with all kinds of crazy accusations.
Coinbase, which has its own wrapped BTC product, delisted Sun’s version, citing its “itemizing requirements.” Sun and Coinbase are now continuing their argument in court.
BitGo’s CEO Mike Belshe called Sun’s loudest critics “intellectually dishonest.” They all had their own token to pump, he alleged.
Back to Game of Thrones.
In the show’s first season, it appeared the writers were setting up the character of Ned Stark as a lead – until he was beheaded towards the end of the first season.
“I assumed, ‘This have to be a mistake. Somebody will come and say it’s all a misunderstanding.’ However no…he was actually gone!” is how Sun recollects watching the present.
This shock hooked audiences and made Game of Thrones considered one of its highest-rated exhibits within the community’s historical past, beating out The Sopranos, and saved viewers glued to the very finish.
To essentially perceive – and decide – Sun, you may simply have to attend till the ultimate episode.
