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In an interview with entrepreneur Mario Nawfal, TRON founder Justin Sun reflected on his early career and the state of the cryptocurrency market back in 2012.

“[At that time] I was buying Bitcoin at $1 and working on the idea of smart contracts,” Sun said.

He also mentioned that Bitcoin could even be purchased on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, akin to eBay, during that period.

Working at Ripple and Transition to TRON

Early in his career, Justin Sun joined Ripple Labs, where he contributed to the development of XRP. By 2014, he and his team shifted focus to a new blockchain vision supporting smart contracts.

“Smart contracts were a revolutionary idea. In 2014, no cryptocurrency had implemented such functionality, but I believed in their potential,” Sun said.

The launch of Ethereum via ICO in 2015 validated his beliefs, prompting him to develop his own solution—TRON, a blockchain supporting smart contracts.

Dogecoin as a Joke

Sun also shared his experience with Dogecoin (DOGE), including significant losses:

“I gave away at least $50 million worth of DOGE. I had a lot of them, but back then we mostly saw Dogecoin as a joke. We sent DOGE to our friends for free. I gave away about 5-10 million DOGE to everyone I knew,” he said.

Views on NFTs and Unconventional Investments

Sun expressed optimism about the ongoing evolution of NFTs, highlighting their development. He also mentioned his purchase of artist Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork “Comedian”—a banana taped to a wall—for $6 million.

“I plan to send the banana to Mars via SpaceX or gift it to Donald Trump,” Sun added.

The entrepreneur is actively investing in NFT projects and crypto art, emphasizing that the market remains robust.

Recent Investments

In November 2024, Sun acquired 2 billion WLFI tokens from the World Liberty Financial platform for $30 million, becoming the largest investor in the project, which is connected to Donald Trump’s family.