Eight years ago when returning to China to start a business, Sun Yuchen once said in a speech: "My standard for judging a person is how much money they make." This is not just a slogan, but has been his guiding principle in action. From starting his business in 2014 to becoming the head of a publicly listed company at age 35 this year, Sun Yuchen has demonstrated what it means to "maximize the use of rules" through concrete actions.

Recently, this deal has attracted a lot of attention—Sun Yuchen used $100 million to reverse acquire the U.S. publicly traded company SRM Entertainment, allowing Tron to officially land on NASDAQ. But if we talk about his true ambitions, they go far beyond this shell company.

Speaking of Tron, this is Sun Yuchen’s core asset in the crypto world. In 2017, he decided to go all-in on blockchain, founded TRON, and issued the TRX token, raising about $400 million in the first round of ICO. Although later impacted by the "9.4" policy and the team dispersed, he did not give up. The real turning point came in 2019—when Tether decided to issue the TRC-20 version of USDT on the Tron network. This move changed everything.

Now, the transfer volume of USDT on the Tron network and Gas consumption account for over 98% of the total on public chains. Each USDT transfer costs users between $0.3 and $8 in fees, and Tron’s daily on-chain revenue has exceeded $2.1 million, with an annualized income of $770 million. Meanwhile, Tron’s market cap has reached around $34.5 billion, ranking among the top mainstream public chains globally.

But Sun Yuchen’s empire is far more than just a public chain. In 2018, he spent $140 million to acquire BitTorrent, an old P2P protocol that once carried 40% of global internet traffic. His idea was clear—bring it back to life through blockchain. After launching the BTT token, users could accelerate downloads with BTT, and uploaders could earn rewards. Although BTT’s performance has been moderate, the very idea is worth noting.

In terms of trading platforms, Sun Yuchen holds two veteran exchanges: Poloniex and HTX. Poloniex was officially acquired by him in June 2022, with a daily trading volume of about $500 million. In October of the same year, he bought a 100% stake in HTX for $1 billion, becoming the actual helmsperson. HTX remains among the top ten global exchanges, with a daily trading volume reaching $2.4 billion.

Stablecoins and cross-chain assets are another of Sun Yuchen’s strategic cards. USDD is a decentralized stablecoin he personally led, with a circulation market cap of $1.49 billion. TUSD, while not directly his personal asset, he invested over $400 million into stabilizing it in early 2025, and its current market cap is $494 million. WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) has a market cap of $9.48 billion, making it one of the largest Bitcoin-mapped assets worldwide.

There’s also DLive, a decentralized live streaming platform integrated with BTFS storage and BTT incentives, which once attracted top streamers like PewDiePie. Plus, APENFT Marketplace, an "on-chain art gallery," turning his passion for art into an NFT trading platform, with a platform token $NFT valued at $282 million.

Adding it all up, the core assets Sun Yuchen holds are worth over $43 billion. This seemingly dispersed yet tightly interconnected network has been refined by him into a comprehensive ecosystem spanning public chains, trading platforms, stablecoins, NFTs, and cross-chain technology within just ten years.

But the most intriguing recent move is his closeness to the Trump family. Sun Yuchen has long been optimistic about the prospects of cryptocurrencies under the new U.S. administration. From late last year to this year, he invested $75 million into the World Liberty Financial project, becoming its largest backer, and holds 1.43 million Trump coins. At a dinner hosted by Trump, he was awarded a gold watch as the largest holder, with some netizens joking that the dinner was actually a "Sun Yuchen dinner."

He straightforwardly said: "I am a bridge between the crypto industry and the president, and to some extent, perhaps also a bridge for future US-China communication." Compared to others who paid hefty fines for entering the U.S. freely, Sun Yuchen’s costs are indeed minimal. Now he’s back in the U.S., touring around, frequently tweeting about his "relationship" with Trump.

From an international student to a crypto businessman, and now a cross-sector figure establishing connections with U.S. power centers, Sun Yuchen has built a sizable business empire in ten years. And the most valuable part of this empire may not be those digital assets, but the networks and influence he has cultivated.