Justin Sun on Mars, Tropico, Game of Thrones, and That Banana

Justin Sun on Mars, Tropico, Game of Thrones, and That Banana

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.

This sequence is dropped at you by Consensus Hong Kong. Come and expertise essentially the most influential occasion in Web3 and Digital Property, Feb.18-20. Register at the moment and save 15% with the code CoinDesk15.

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.

Supply hyperlink

author avatar
Crypto Dunia
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 115,584.97 3.93%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,924.74 5.71%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.02%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 2.52 4.39%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 684.74 2.17%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 162.28 3.48%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.01%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.194101 7.60%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.293655 1.28%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,923.09 5.72%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.670818 7.95%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 115,515.95 3.89%
hyperliquid
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 43.70 6.91%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,540.12 5.89%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 3.41 10.87%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 15.10 6.06%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 515.43 0.06%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.298644 3.66%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 20.50 4.88%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.04 0.71%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.188719 10.43%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,137.52 5.74%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000013 6.28%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,925.02 5.68%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.999894 0.01%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 2.92 3.13%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 93.87 3.55%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 46.71 0.05%
binance-bridged-usdt-bnb-smart-chain
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 1.00 0.10%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 326.83 0.18%
coinbase-wrapped-btc
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 115,554.96 3.89%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.82 5.69%
bitget-token
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.57 4.05%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.05%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000012 11.94%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 8.34 1.19%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 305.16 1.61%
pi-network
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.495212 6.16%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.03%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 370.74 6.07%
ethena-staked-usde
Ethena Staked USDe (SUSDE) $ 1.18 0.10%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 4.80 4.02%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.48 6.25%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.096266 0.59%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 48.99 0.75%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 5.34 3.91%
jito-staked-sol
Jito Staked SOL (JITOSOL) $ 197.14 3.44%
blackrock-usd-institutional-digital-liquidity-fund
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00 0.00%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 18.25 3.57%
ondo-finance
Ondo (ONDO) $ 0.8792 5.91%
susds
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.06 0.02%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.08487 4.16%
usd1-wlfi
USD1 (USD1) $ 1.00 0.02%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.624624 4.83%
cosmos
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 4.57 6.13%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.023762 6.33%
ethena
Ethena (ENA) $ 0.310876 7.58%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.217801 5.47%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.39028 10.47%
gatechain-token
Gate (GT) $ 16.30 1.75%
official-trump
Official Trump (TRUMP) $ 9.72 7.77%
fasttoken
Fasttoken (FTN) $ 4.46 0.14%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 0.728145 4.12%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 3.61 8.13%
algorand
Algorand (ALGO) $ 0.211173 10.38%
worldcoin-wld
Worldcoin (WLD) $ 1.06 16.55%
bonk
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000023 12.23%
sky
Sky (SKY) $ 0.082984 1.80%
binance-peg-weth
Binance-Peg WETH (WETH) $ 2,925.81 5.55%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 2.55 4.63%
lombard-staked-btc
Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) $ 115,596.97 4.11%
sei-network
Sei (SEI) $ 0.301165 14.46%
quant-network
Quant (QNT) $ 114.31 3.90%
jupiter-perpetuals-liquidity-provider-token
Jupiter Perpetuals Liquidity Provider Token (JLP) $ 4.70 2.17%
binance-staked-sol
Binance Staked SOL (BNSOL) $ 172.52 3.40%
spx6900
SPX6900 (SPX) $ 1.58 4.53%
usdtb
USDtb (USDTB) $ 0.999738 0.03%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.999213 0.03%
kucoin-shares
KuCoin (KCS) $ 11.34 1.38%
jupiter-exchange-solana
Jupiter (JUP) $ 0.476998 5.91%
kelp-dao-restaked-eth
Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (RSETH) $ 3,065.34 5.62%
rocket-pool-eth
Rocket Pool ETH (RETH) $ 3,334.80 5.66%
usdt0
USDT0 (USDT0) $ 1.00 0.07%
fartcoin
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) $ 1.30 16.76%
celestia
Celestia (TIA) $ 1.83 8.88%
nexo
NEXO (NEXO) $ 1.26 2.03%
pudgy-penguins
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) $ 0.019094 23.91%
xdce-crowd-sale
XDC Network (XDC) $ 0.072306 6.34%
flare-networks
Flare (FLR) $ 0.016703 2.96%
injective-protocol
Injective (INJ) $ 11.90 8.81%
optimism
Optimism (OP) $ 0.649086 10.86%
virtual-protocol
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) $ 1.73 10.40%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 0.728519 5.61%
mantle-staked-ether
Mantle Staked Ether (METH) $ 3,121.26 5.39%
stakewise-v3-oseth
StakeWise Staked ETH (OSETH) $ 3,072.87 5.64%
sonic-3
Sonic (S) $ 0.339535 6.72%
polygon-bridged-usdt-polygon
Polygon Bridged USDT (Polygon) (USDT) $ 1.00 0.00%
solv-btc
Solv Protocol BTC (SOLVBTC) $ 115,510.95 4.07%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 1.04 8.77%
binance-bridged-usdc-bnb-smart-chain
Binance Bridged USDC (BNB Smart Chain) (USDC) $ 1.00 0.08%
Scroll to Top