By cryptoadmin 
Justin Solar, the 34-year-old founding father of Tron, landed the day by day cowl of Forbes after dumping over $80 million into Donald Trump’s crypto startup, World Liberty Monetary, serving to the U.S. president and his household pocket round $400 million.
The money got here in throughout a chaotic stretch—Trump had simply returned to the White Home, and Solar was going through an SEC lawsuit over fraud and securities violations. The Trump undertaking had been spiraling.
The corporate’s pitch deck, known as the “Gold Paper,” featured Trump painted gold and posed like a comic book guide hero. It supplied no actual product, no liquidity, no fairness, and no legit management. Justin nonetheless wired $30 million in November 2024, solely three weeks after Trump received the election.
“I see WLF as a robust participant within the monetary know-how area,” he mentioned on the time. He then known as Trump a “cheat code for crypto” and threw in $45 million extra, with 75% of that going straight to Trump, per firm phrases.
Solar injects hundreds of thousands whereas SEC backs off
All the WLF token construction meant that any cash over $30 million raised would largely go to the Trump household. That’s precisely what occurred. Then Trump launched $TRUMP, his meme coin, in January 2025. Justin put much more money in.
He didn’t revenue a lot—he couldn’t even entry the funds—however the Trump household walked away with a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands. Senator Chris Murphy mentioned on the Senate ground in March, “That is primarily Trump posting his Venmo for anybody to secretly wire him as a lot cash as they need.”
Forbes cowl with a portrait photograph of Justin Solar. Supply: Forbes
Justin acquired one thing in return. The SEC dropped lawsuits towards crypto firms like Coinbase and Kraken proper after Trump returned to energy. The company additionally paused its case towards Justin. He had been accused of wash buying and selling and pushing unregistered tokens via celebrities like Jake Paul and Lindsay Lohan. These expenses are nonetheless stay, however they’re now frozen.
Justin was instantly named an advisor to World Liberty Monetary. His early curiosity in Trump got here from watching The Apprentice reruns in center faculty in Huizhou, a metropolis in southern China. His instructor instructed the category to be taught English from TV, and Justin used BitTorrent to obtain Trump episodes—years earlier than he owned BitTorrent himself.
He mentioned he admired Trump’s showmanship, competitors mindset, and outsized ego. “It was pure for The Apprentice to turn into well-liked in China,” Justin mentioned. He noticed Trump’s branding fashion as an asset. And when Trump’s crypto firm began falling aside, he jumped in.
Tron copies Ethereum, outgrows it in funds
Justin has at all times moved quick. He created Tron in 2017, claiming it was quicker and cheaper than Ethereum. He purchased Poloniex and HTX exchanges after watching what Binance and FTX did. He created SunSwap after watching Uniswap develop. By copying different initiatives and utilizing low charges, he grew Tron’s person base to 300 million.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao helped push Tron. In 2017, Binance managed Tron’s $70 million ICO simply earlier than China banned ICOs. In 2018, Binance added Tron to its Gold Label Mission, which made it the default for USDT stablecoin transfers. That drove an enormous enhance in utilization.
By the tip of 2019, Tron had over $1 billion value of Tether shifting throughout it, leaping from $100 million in only a few months. Binance helped by providing 16% curiosity on Tether held on Tron and eradicating withdrawal charges. Even when Binance paid over $4 billion in penalties to the U.S. in 2023, and CZ did a jail stint in 2024, Tron was already too deep within the system to decelerate.
Chris Maurice, CEO of Yellow Card, mentioned, “Any time I discuss with stablecoins, you may simply assume that about 70% of it’s USDT on Tron.” Yellow Card operates in 20 African international locations. Tron’s low charges made it good for individuals sending small quantities, particularly in rising markets. In 2024, Tron’s transaction quantity hit $500 billion month-to-month.
Illicit crypto transactions flood Tron
However with quantity got here soiled cash. TRM Labs reported that 58% of illicit crypto exercise in 2024 occurred on Tron. That features over $10 billion in unlawful flows, greater than each Bitcoin and Ethereum mixed. Inca Digital reported that Hezbollah and Hamas used Tron to maneuver at the least $2 billion.
Justin mentioned he’s attempting to repair that. In September, Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs shaped the T3 Monetary Crime Unit, which claims to have frozen $130 million in unhealthy funds. Nonetheless, U.S. companies aren’t shopping for it. Circle minimize ties with Tron. In December 2024, Coinbase delisted wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), saying in court docket, “Mr. Solar’s affiliation with—and potential management over—wBTC introduced an unacceptable threat to its prospects and the integrity of its trade.”
Justin’s firms, Tron and BitTorrent, had been accused by the SEC of fabricating buying and selling quantity to pump the value of TRX. The company mentioned staff created a number of accounts to faux demand. Solar additionally allegedly paid celebrities to shill the tokens with out disclosing funds.
He didn’t touch upon the SEC case. However by giving Trump a monetary lifeline proper after the election, he could have purchased himself respiration room. Whereas he hasn’t met Trump himself, Justin has hung out with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who run World Liberty alongside Steve Witkoff’s son.
Justin is banking on Trump’s attain to spice up crypto’s repute. “$TRUMP actually breaks the boundaries between Web3 and the standard world,” he mentioned. He additionally claimed that after $TRUMP launched, his trade HTX gained 1 million customers in a single week—largely from China, the place crypto is banned. He added, “The Chinese language authorities doesn’t need to be seen as banning Trump. I believe they’re afraid of anyone telling Trump that the Chinese language authorities is banning your coin.”
Forbes values Solar at $8.5 billion, however warns it may very well be a lot greater
Justin instructed Forbes his internet value is over $40 billion, together with crypto, artwork, and an Airbus 330 jet. He mentioned he owns a Warhol, a Picasso, and large stacks of bitcoin and ether. However Forbes estimates the quantity at $8.5 billion, since lots of his belongings are unverifiable or saved in different individuals’s names. Even so, with the SEC stepping off, his actual quantity may climb.
He was born in 1990 in Qinghai, close to Tibet, and moved to Guangdong at age 4. His mom was a sports activities journalist, and his father reported on politics. He was into literature, received a nationwide writing contest in 2007, and entered Peking College to turn into a author. He later switched to international historical past. “Due to this, I see the world as a unified place,” Justin mentioned.
In 2011, he went to the College of Pennsylvania, the place Trump additionally studied, and acquired a grasp’s in political economic system. In 2012, after studying about Bitcoin, he acquired obsessed, joined on-line boards, and ended up as Ripple’s chief rep in China by 2013. However even there, he rubbed individuals the flawed manner. A former Ripple colleague mentioned, “He at all times mentioned he had connections to the Chinese language Communist Occasion and the federal government, however to be sincere, I don’t assume any of these connections had been useful in any respect… He’s money-hungry.”
Justin left Ripple in 2015 and launched Tron in 2017. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin accused Tron of stealing textual content from Ethereum’s white paper. Juan Benet, founding father of Filecoin, mentioned 9 pages had been lifted from his personal docs. Vitalik as soon as tweeted, “Management+C + Management+V a lot greater effectivity than keyboard typing new content material.” Justin didn’t deny the similarities and mentioned, “Ethereum compatibility was essential.”
Solar eats bananas, buys meme cash, and plans for AI
Justin has an extended file of constructing bizarre headlines. In 2019, he paid $4.6 million to win a lunch with Warren Buffett, then canceled final minute. He later did the lunch a yr later. In 2021, he paid $28 million to trip Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceship, then missed the launch over “scheduling.” In November 2024, he paid $6.2 million for Maurizio Cattelan’s “The Comic,” a banana duct-taped to a wall—after which ate it in entrance of reporters in Hong Kong ten days later.
Justin Solar consuming his banana at a press convention. Supply: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Photos
He calls himself “His Excellency,” a title from his appointment as WTO ambassador for Grenada. He additionally claims to be prime minister of Liberland, a self-declared microstate on the Danube River. On citizenship, he instructed Forbes, “I believe we are able to put St. Kitts, in all probability.”
When requested why he pulls these stunts, Justin mentioned, “Most individuals in all probability assume I do this stuff as a result of I need to get everyone’s consideration. However really, after I do issues in crypto that come to actuality, that’s after I get most of it.”
Behind the present, his companies are rising. His DeFi platform SunSwap, constructed on Tron, noticed over $4 billion in wrapped token trades in December 2024 alone. His meme coin generator SunPump, a duplicate of Solana’s meme manufacturing unit, has launched 97,000 tokens since August. They’ve made $37 million to this point, in comparison with Solana’s $600 million in 2024. Justin says Asia will drive the subsequent meme wave. “I believe meme cash are capitalizing the web itself,” he mentioned.
He’s now excited about how crypto can energy AI techniques. He mentioned that when AIs rent one another, conventional funds can’t sustain. “That’s gonna take in all probability six months to do it within the first place,” he mentioned. “However on a extremely scalable community, all the pieces could be achieved in 5 minutes or 5 seconds.”
As for what occurs subsequent, Justin made it clear: “I need to be a builder of the long run world. However first, we’ve got to think about what the long run world can be.”