Justin Sun says he’s willing to invest $1 billion to buy assets from troubled holding company Digital Currency Group. While the investor is no stranger to making such statements, is this a real purchase or just a marketing stunt?
Investor Justin Sun shows interest in Digital Currency Group assets
In an interview with Reuters, Justin Sun, founder of the Tron ecosystem (TRX), said he was willing to invest $1 billion to buy some of the assets of Digital Currency Group (DCG). He says he wants to “make the tough times a little easier”:
Looking to make the tough times a bit easier. https://t.co/uUIe6MJuD7
– H.E. Justin Sun₮ (@justinsuntron) January 14, 2023
This announcement comes against the backdrop of DCG, the cryptocurrency industry holding company with stakes in more than 200 companies, experiencing difficulties, particularly with its subsidiary Genesis. Indeed, the latter owes more than three billion dollars to its creditors, and is now the subject of a complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
A concrete ambition or just a marketing stunt
Justin Sun said that these potential investments will be made “based on their assessment of the situation”, but in practical terms, he did not indicate which of Digital Currency Group’s assets are attracting his attention. This may also suggest that this statement may be just marketing.
It is worth noting that the founder of Tron is no stranger to making such statements. Last summer, he announced that he was ready to invest five billion dollars to save companies in difficulty, just after Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) had claimed to have a few billion for the same purpose. As for the latter, we know what happened next, and when FTX collapsed, Justin Sun again came forward to buy some of the group’s assets.
While DCG is reportedly looking to divest itself of some of its assets in order to raise funds to pay off Genesis’ debts, as reported by the Financial Times this week, only time will tell how solid Justin Sun’s words are. In addition, it should be noted that the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, of which he is officially an “advisor”, recently informed that 20% of its staff had been laid off.
