As the founder of TRON, Sun Yuchen completed his listing on NASDAQ through a reverse merger with SRM Entertainment in July 2025 (stock code TRON), becoming the first Chinese crypto leader to list on NASDAQ. This event is not only a milestone in personal business achievement but also marks a turning point in the deep integration of the crypto industry with the traditional financial system.
Sun Yuchen's bell-ringing event may symbolize the fusion of crypto assets with traditional finance. The transformation of Sun Yuchen (Justin Sun) from 'Sun Cut' (accused of profiting at the expense of others) to 'Sun God' (the crypto leader ringing the NASDAQ bell) is the result of a mix of marketing talent, political capital operation, on-chain ecological construction, and financial innovation.
The three main cryptocurrencies issued under Sun Yuchen's leadership are TRON (TRX), USDD stablecoin, and SUNDOG token, covering three major areas: public chain ecology, stablecoins, and meme coins.
Sun Yuchen abandoned the traditional IPO path, choosing to reverse acquire the NASDAQ 'shell company' SRM Entertainment with $100 million worth of TRX (market cap of $170 million), achieving control and renaming it Tron Inc. This maneuver avoided SEC scrutiny over crypto assets while converting the TRX token into 'legal assets' on the US stock balance sheet. After the transaction, SRM's stock price surged 300%, and TRON's market cap exceeded $20 billion, becoming the first public chain project to enter mainstream capital markets through compliant channels.
TRON's listing proves that crypto projects can obtain legal exemptions through capital operations. 'Crypto-friendly' policies in places like Hong Kong and Singapore may follow the US model, encouraging more projects to seek endorsements from traditional capital markets. By July 2025, 12 countries around the world had recognized TRON DAO as a 'compliant digital entity,' and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission included it in the 'regulatory sandbox whitelist.'
The token economics paradigm has been upgraded, with TRX achieving 'dual value anchoring' for the first time: on-chain as public chain gas fees and staking rewards (deflationary model), off-chain as financial assets (listed company stocks). This model provides a new valuation framework for token economics, with market responses being positive: TRX's price rose 22% on the day of the bell-ringing, its market cap surpassed $50 billion, overtaking BNB to become the third-largest crypto asset globally.
The path to Sun Yuchen's ascent:
I. Controversial marketing: Turning black-red traffic into global fame
Sun Yuchen understands the essence of the internet, 'controversy is traffic,' breaking through circle barriers with a series of performance art-level events: 1. Buffett lunch incident (2019)
Spent $4.57 million on a post-lunch 'no-show,' then gifted Buffett a TRON phone, provoking widespread online criticism of 'pulling a stunt.' However, he used this to convey the idea that 'traditional finance needs to embrace blockchain,' transforming the backlash into global exposure for TRON. 2. Expensive banana incident (2024)
Bought artist Cattelan's banana installation for $6.2 million (a real banana taped to a wall), ate it in public, and claimed 'it tastes sweeter than a regular banana.' The controversy was interpreted as money laundering or performance art, but he positioned it as 'connecting crypto with the dimension of art,' grabbing global media headlines.
3. Trump Coin purchase (2024)
Invested $17.9 million to become the largest holder of Trump Coin (TRUMP), attended a Trump family dinner and received a co-branded watch, publicly declaring to 'build a new financial order for the free world,' transforming speculative controversy into political capital.
Core logic: Using substantial funds to create topic leverage, binding personal and project interests to cultural symbols (such as Buffett representing traditional finance, banana representing contemporary art, Trump representing political power), achieving cross-boundary dissemination.
II. Regulatory counterattack: From SEC defendant to NASDAQ protagonist
Sun Yuchen demonstrated extraordinary political arbitrage ability in the face of regulatory pressure:
Crisis (2023): Sued by the SEC for fraud and market manipulation, the FBI intervened in a money laundering investigation, facing a risk of up to 25 years in prison.
Turning point (2025):
Betting on the Trump camp: Invested $75 million in the Trump family project WLFI, promoting its stablecoin USD1 to launch on the TRON chain;
Binding power ties: Trump's eldest and second sons serve as advisors to investment bank Dominari (the operator of Sun Yuchen's listing), forming a community of interests;
SEC suspends lawsuit (February 2025): After the Trump administration released a signal of relaxed regulation, the SEC proactively suspended the lawsuit, clearing obstacles for the listing.
Reaching the top (July 2025): Through Dominari's operation, reverse merged the NASDAQ-listed company SRM, renamed it TRON Inc., and rang the bell. Trump's second son Eric posted: 'The decentralized revolution has begun!'.
Survival philosophy: 'When the regulatory hammer falls, ordinary people think of running away, geniuses think - who is swinging the hammer?'.
III. On-chain empire: Supporting 'non-air coins' narrative with data
Sun Yuchen used real on-chain ecology to hedge against 'air coin' doubts, building barriers at the level of financial infrastructure:
User scale: 320 million activated accounts, accounting for nearly half of global cryptocurrency users;
| Stablecoin hegemony: Carrying 81.6 billion USDT, processing 60% of global stablecoin payments, with daily settlement volume exceeding 3 PayPals;
DeFi foundation: Total locked value (TVL) of $24.6 billion, second only to Ethereum, supporting the circulation of assets worth hundreds of billions;
IV. Capital conspiracy: The 'TRX microstrategy' of listed companies
Sun Yuchen's ultimate move is to implant crypto assets into the heart of traditional finance:
Reverse merger listing:
Through the Trump-associated investment bank Dominari, reverse merged the toy company SRM with $210 million, renamed it TRON Inc. to list on NASDAQ, and the stock price surged tenfold in ten days.
TRX reserve strategy:
Incorporated 365 million TRX into the listed company's balance sheet, replicating MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy, claiming an annualized return of up to 10%.
Dual-track harvesting mechanism:
Shareholders: Receive TRX appreciation dividends through stock sharing without directly holding cryptocurrencies;
Coin holders: Deflationary model + corporate buybacks raise coin prices, forming a 'dual flying' cycle of stocks and coins.
V. Space narrative: The ultimate symbol of crypto civilization
Future outlook: Sun Yuchen has purchased a Blue Origin spaceship ticket (costing $28 million in 2021), planning to implant 'crypto Easter eggs' in space missions. He defines this as a 'decentralized spiritual breakthrough beyond Earth's boundaries,' attempting to elevate the TRON symbol to the level of human civilization.
Sun Yuchen's 'God-making formula'
Sun Yuchen's rise is far from luck, but rather a carefully designed strategic combination:
Traffic side: Transforming controversy into a low-cost high-dissemination marketing weapon;
Regulatory side: Using political resources to leverage regulatory gaps, turning a defendant into a bell-ringer;
Ecological side: Building a moat with on-chain real data;
Capital side: Connecting traditional finance and crypto market dual-track liquidity, allowing institutional funds to endorse TRX.
As fans say: 'What can we do? What can we do?' It is not only a self-deprecating joke within the crypto circle but also a survival wisdom seeking cracks under the regulatory iron curtain.
The NASDAQ bell not only announces the completion of Sun Yuchen's personal counterattack but also marks the entry of crypto assets into the traditional financial sanctuary in an institutionalized manner. Sun Yuchen's NASDAQ bell ringing is both a victory of personal ambition and a key node in the crypto industry's transition from the margins to the mainstream.
He opened a unique evolutionary path for TRON through capital magic, political binding, and technological innovation. However, regulatory risks, commercial model controversies, and technological bottlenecks remain concerns for its long-term development. This event may reshape the value logic of the crypto industry and push more projects to seek a balance between compliance and decentralization.
As Sun Yuchen said: 'They think I'm overturning finance, but I'm just making the world keep pace with blockchain.'
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