Justin Sun, the founder ofTRON, recently visited Jed McCaleb at Vast, the space startup McCaleb founded to build advanced space stations. It was a meeting that brought together two well-known names from the crypto industry. The two reportedly discussed McCaleb’s long-running work in tech and blockchain, as well as potential collaborations in the space sector.
McCaleb has had a long career in crypto, and he has been involved in some of the biggest early developments in the field.
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Creating eDonkey in the early 2000s and cofounding Mt. Gox before selling it in 2011 are just the beginning. Later, he helped launchRipple and XRP Ledger. He then started Stellar, focusing on blockchain-based solutions for global payments.
Now, he is focusing on space infrastructure through his work as the founder and board chair of Vast.
Thank you very much for the meeting with Jed. From eDonkey to Mt. Gox, Ripple, and Stellar, your journey has been a continuous source of inspiration for me. I hope we can have more collaboration in the space sector in the future — this is just the beginning! @JedMcCaleb pic.twitter.com/fQOhbKk9Cy
— H.E. Justin Sun 🍌 (@justinsuntron) May 21, 2025
For Sun, the meeting was both personal and strategic. Before launching TRON, he was Ripple’s first hire in China, a position that gave him early insight into the blockchain space — an experience that would shape his future projects, including TRON, which has since grown into one of the more visible ecosystems in the Web3 space.
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Connections between Ripple and Sun have surfaced before. Previously,David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO, praised Sun’s early contributions, leaving the door open for future partnerships.
Sun made another stop after the meeting at Vast — this time at SpaceX — where he shared a lighthearted photo in front of a Falcon 9 rocket, suggesting a joint mission with Elon Musk.
