Banana auction billionaire invests in Trump’s crypto venture

Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun has invested $30 million into Donald Trump’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial, he announced Monday.

“We are thrilled to invest $30 million in World Liberty Financial @worldlibertyfi as its largest investor,” Sun wrote in a post on X.

Sun recently made national headlines when he spent $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction for a banana duct-taped to a wall.

World Liberty Financial, the Trump-branded crypto platform, aspires to be a sort of digital asset bank, where customers will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in digital coins. 

Trump has licensed his name and promotional considerations to the venture through an LLC, with no assumption of liability. In exchange, Trump’s LLC received billions of tokens and the right to 75% of revenues above a $30 million threshold.

The platform launched a WLFI token last month, and said in a roadmap that it was looking to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in its initial sale. 

Before Sun’s investment, $21.2 million worth of the token had been sold. As of Monday afternoon, $51.2 million worth of the token had been sold, according to its website. Sales now appear to have crossed the $30 million threshold to trigger revenue distribution to Trump’s LLC.

“The U.S. is becoming the blockchain hub, and Bitcoin owes it to @realDonaldTrump ! TRON is committed to making America great again and leading innovation. Let’s go!” added Sun.

WLFI co-founder Zachary Folkman has said “well over 100,000 people” are on the whitelist to invest in the token. But as of Monday afternoon, only about 20,400 unique wallet addresses hold the token, according to blockchain data tracked by Etherscan, representing roughly 20% of the total number of people who registered.

“There have been a number of similarly significant purchases in recent weeks, and we are confident about future success and building out something that helps to make finance freer and fairer,” Folkman said in a statement. “We expect more such developments to happen in the coming weeks and months.”

While Trump does not take office until January, Sun’s investment in WLFI, and the revenue it appears to direct to Trump’s LLC under the terms disclosed, highlights the way Trump’s newer business ventures, like his social media company Trump Media Technology Group and this crypto venture, could offer more direct opportunities for individuals to enrich the president-elect than Trump’s hotels and office buildings did.

During Trump’s first term in office, there were near constant questions about whether foreign governments’ lavish spending on rooms and banquets at Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel amounted to violations of the Constitution’s “emoluments clause.”

The clause bars federal office holders from accepting payments or things of value from foreign governments and their representatives.

But Trump’s hotel rooms and office space have relatively fixed prices, and costs that cut into total profits.

By contrast, the investors in Trump’s newer ventures — as demonstrated by Sun’s token purchase — can inject tens of millions of dollars, instantly, with little to no cost to Trump.

Spokespeople for the Trump presidential transition, World Liberty Financial and Sun’s Tron did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Sun’s purchase comes as Trump actively works to assemble his list of appointees. The president-elect wrapped up cabinet appointments over the weekend and has since moved on to other agency and department leaders.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reportedly met with Trump to discuss appointments on Nov. 18. Within a day, conversations swirled about the potential for Trump to create the White House’s first crypto czar.

By the end of the week, longtime crypto foe and SEC chairman Gary Gensler, whose term doesn’t expire until June 2026, announced he would be retiring on Inauguration Day.

In March 2023, the commission unveiled fraud and unregistered securities charges against Sun, alongside separate violations against the celebrity backers of his Tronix and BitTorrent crypto assets, which included Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy.

The SEC alleged that Sun engaged in fraud by manipulating the trading activity of the two tokens, creating the appearance of active trading when it did not exist. The unregistered offer and sale charges, on the other hand, are similar to charges the SEC has unveiled against other crypto offerings and exchanges, including Genesis, Gemini, Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.

Trump has yet to select a nominee to lead the SEC in Gensler’s place. Under new leadership, the securities regulator could choose to drop some of its enforcement actions against major crypto ventures. It’s unclear how Tron’s case could be impacted.

The crypto industry showed up in force this election cycle. Several notable sector leaders including Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, as well as multiple C-suite executives from crypto firms battling the SEC, donated to PACs supporting the Trump campaign.