Justin Sun’s TRON purchased $30 million worth of World Liberty Financial tokens earlier this week, and the investment enabled President-elect Donald Trump and his sons, Eric, Don Jr., and Barron, to get paid.
World Liberty listed Trump as its “Chief Crypto Advocate,” and his sons as “Web3 Ambassadors.” Trump and his family have been promoting World Liberty Financial for months, claiming that it can “make finance great again.”
World Liberty set out to sell $300 million worth of tokens to raise funding but until Sun’s investment, it was failing. It had sold only $21 million worth of tokens, achieving merely 7% of its target until Sun tipped the scales.
Now, since the threshold of $30 million has crossed, the Trumps collectively stand to receive at least $15 million, according to World Liberty’s “Gold Paper.”
Despite the poor reception of World Liberty by the crypto community at large, Trump’s company DT Marks DEFI LLC will receive 75% of all proceeds, as per terms laid out in the gold paper.
Upon Sun’s investment, World Liberty Financial named him as an adviser and paved the way for him to be in business with the Trumps. Sun’s latest investment can be seen as a move to curry favor with the next U.S. President, who has promised to replace SEC chief Gary Gensler with a crypto-friendly candidate.
Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit that monitors executive branch appointees, told Bloomberg:
“Foreign countries and rogue business people would have never thought to be as brash in cultivating an American president as what we are witnessing in the orbit around Trump.”
While Sun has never met with any of the Trumps, he is expected to meet with Eric Trump at a Bitcoin conference in Abu Dhabi next month. Sun has said that he does not expect any favors from Trump in exchange for his investment.
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Monika Ghosh
In 2020, Monika immersed herself in crypto, maintaining skepticism yet firmly believing blockchain could address key issues like financial disparity and transparency. A book-lover, she’s also a passionate food enthusiast.
