Sun Yuchen and TRON: An Evolutionary History of an Encryption Empire

Born in 1990 in Xining, Qinghai, Sun Yuchen's life trajectory has been different from the very beginning. With the first prize in the New Concept Composition Contest, he successfully opened the door to the Chinese Department of Peking University, later transferring to the History Department and graduating with the top of his class.

During his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, his interest shifted from history to finance, joining the investment association and taking courses at the Wharton School, laying the groundwork for future entrepreneurship. In 2014, Sun Yuchen returned to China to start a business with a dream of blockchain and was recognized by the Davos Forum as a Global Outstanding Young Leader.

##Early Trajectory and Entrepreneurial Genes, Breaking from the Margins to the Core

Sun Yuchen's entrepreneurial journey began with a keen sense of seizing opportunities. In 2017, he gathered his classmates from Peking University to establish TRON, aiming at the public chain track of "decentralized internet."

At that time, the blockchain industry was booming, and TRON raised about $400 million through an ICO. However, China's regulatory authorities launched a heavy-handed strike with the "9.4" policy, causing the early team of the project to almost disperse, and partners left one after another due to security concerns.

"In my six years of entrepreneurship, almost the first three years were completely wasted," Sun Yuchen later described that difficult period. But he did not give up.

April 2019 marked a key turning point: Tether decided to issue the TRC-20 version of USDT on the TRON network. This decision became the catalyst for the explosion of the TRON ecosystem.

Sun Yuchen invested all resources into the promotion of stablecoins, a strategy that made TRON stand out among many public chains. He predicted at that time: "The USDT issued on the TRON blockchain will soon become the largest stablecoin in the world."

##The Rise of Tron and the Controversy Surrounding It

The development of TRON has not been a linear rise. In early 2018, Justin Sun was reported to have sold 6 billion TRX, cashing out approximately $300 million, which sparked controversy over "cutting leeks," and he was dubbed "Sun Cut" in the crypto community.

In June of the same year, he acquired BitTorrent for $140 million, a P2P protocol that once carried 40% of global internet traffic. He then launched the BTT token, attempting to blockchain the veteran technology.

In 2019, Sun Yuchen made headlines by winning a record $4.567 million bid for a lunch with Warren Buffett, only to cancel it later citing "kidney stones," which caused a global uproar. This incident made his public image swing between "genius" and "fraud."

The evolution of technology has never ceased. In 2023, the TRON mainnet completed multiple upgrades, releasing GreatVoyage v4.7.3, significantly enhancing transaction throughput, reducing fees, and strengthening smart contract capabilities.

By 2025, the daily trading volume of TRON is expected to exceed 8.7 million transactions. Justin Sun proposed the "SunPump" plan, aiming to push the daily trading volume to over 20 million transactions within three months.

Stablecoins have become the cornerstone of the TRON ecosystem. The circulation of TRC20-USDT exceeds $64 billion, accounting for over 98% of on-chain activities on the TRON network. Users pay a transaction fee of $0.3 to $8 for each USDT transfer, bringing an average daily revenue of over $2.1 million to TRON, with an annualized total of $770 million.

##Building a Crypto Empire: Capital Expansion and Compliance Game

2025 will be a highlight moment for Sun Yuchen. In April, he appeared on the global cover of Forbes, hailed as the "billionaire pioneer in the crypto space," becoming the third Chinese entrepreneur to receive this honor after Jack Ma and Zhao Changpeng.

In June, he completed a milestone capital operation - Tron acquired SRM Entertainment to go public on Nasdaq, with the shell company's stock price soaring 647% due to the merger news.

However, controversy follows like a shadow. In 2023, the U.S. SEC sued Sun Yuchen for "illegal sale of securities, fraud, and market manipulation," accusing him of artificially inflating TRX trading volume through "wash trading."

Within the Tron network, Justin Sun led the innovation of token economics. Proposal No. 102, implemented in June 2025, reduced the block reward for nodes to 8 TRX and increased the voting reward to 128 TRX, driving the annual deflation rate of TRX from 0.85% to 1.29%.

This design shifts economic benefits towards the community, transforming voting from a form of expression into a source of actual revenue.

##Future Prospects

Today, the total market capitalization of TRON is $26.96 billion, with a daily transaction volume exceeding 8.7 million, supporting a circulation of $64 billion in TRC20-USDT stablecoins.

As Sun Yuchen stood at the Nasdaq exchange in New York, with the logo of "Tron Inc." behind him, this former Peking University history student had quietly built a crypto empire worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

The TRON network processes millions of transactions every day, from cross-border remittances by Filipino workers to trade settlements by South American merchants. Technology may no longer be disruptive to the world, but it has quietly changed the way the world operates.

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