With yesterday’s announcement about a $100 million purchase of the $TRUMP memecoin, Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun is in contention with Elon Musk to become the largest personal donor to US President Donald Trump.
As his donations and purchases of Trump’s crypto tokens continue, it’s safe to assume that the president will personally earn over $60 million from Justin Sun — and probably much more.
Weeks ago, Sun was already a $75 million donor to Trump’s first DeFi project by way of his World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token purchases. In addition, Sun and HTX, which he claims to advise, had also bought $TRUMP coins, with his holdings soaring to over $38 million.
This week, Sun and his TronDAO announced another record-breaking purchase of $100 million of the Bill Zanker-advised memecoin. Sun retweeted the announcement in affirmation.
The personal takings of Trump himself, who enjoys a massive revenue split with these crypto projects, exceeded $55 million by June. Trump’s personal profits are only increasing with this week’s $100 million TronDAO announcement.
In addition to these direct purchases, the value of the president’s holdings is also increasing with the market capitalization of $TRUMP itself. The memecoin rallied $35 million yesterday within 10 minutes of the TronDAO headline.
In addition, the persistence of a well-known and influential bidder in any public market can inspire confidence in other investors’ decisions to hold longer or buy more.
Prominent bullishness from influential actors can significantly influence broader investor sentiment and behavior.
Justin Sun out-donated Musk as a percentage of net worth
Currently, Musk’s donations to Trump’s campaign are larger than Sun’s by absolute dollar amount. However, Sun dwarfs Musk on a percentage of personal net worth.
Musk donated up to $281 million to help Trump win re-election, yet he’s personally worth $347 billion. Sun and his Tron ecosystem, in contrast, have announced purchases exceeding $180 million, yet Sun’s estimated net worth is less than $8.6 billion.
In other words, Musk donated less than 0.1% of his net worth versus Sun’s more than 2%.
It’s important to note that Musk directly donated to Trump’s campaign and political action committees (PACs) in ways that didn’t allow him to hold most of his donations as investments.
Sun, in contrast, purchased tokens that retain value. Although Sun hasn’t resold most of them, he could presumably resell some of his tokens to recoup his earlier, de facto donations.
Read more: Donald Trump’s memecoin profits targeted by MEME Act
Trump has a series of brand licenses, royalties, and fee-sharing agreements with WLFI and TRUMP through which he earns money personally.
Both men quickly profited from personal and business benefits after their donations. Indeed, earlier this year, Musk benefited from an advisory position in the White House and weeks of influence within the Executive Branch that affected his businesses SpaceX, xAI, and X.
Later, he abruptly severed ties with the president and left Washington, DC to start his own political party.
Sun has seen his Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit and criminal investigation stayed this year. Eric Trump, the son of the president, calls Sun “a great friend and an icon in the crypto space.”
