- A wallet associated with Justin Sun has made large TUSD deposits to Binance.
- The deposits have raised eyebrows amid Binance’s SUI Launchpool announcement.
- The transactions also sparked a warning from Binance.
Tron founder Justin Sun is never far from controversy. This year, Sun has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, from being named in a United States Securities and Exchange Commission suit to losing diplomatic immunity.
This time is no different, as a wallet associated with the crypto billionaire raised eyebrows by sending about 400 million TUSD to Binance just after the crypto exchange announced that it was adding SUI to its Launchpool. Binance Launchpool allows users to stake their crypto holdings to earn new tokens. It is a promotion tactic the exchange sometimes uses for new crypto projects.
In this case, Binance planned to offer SUI rewards to customers that stake TUSD or BNB, per a blog post on Sunday, April 30. On Monday, May 1, a wallet associated with Sun sent over 400 million TUSD to Binance in ten transactions, per Tronscan data. Whale Alert reported two of these transactions, which totaled over $115 million. The community quickly connected the dots, speculating Sun planned to farm SUI on Binance’s Launchpool.
Binance Issues Warning, Sun Apologizes
Responding to the Whale Alert tweet, Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao disclosed that Binance had warned Sun that it would “take action” if he used any of the deposited TUSD to farm SUI meant for retail customers.
Sun has apologized, claiming that the transactions were a misstep by some members of Tron DAO Ventures who were ignorant of the purpose of the funds. He also said that he has arranged for a refund of the funds, though the wallet transaction data does not show that Binance has refunded the deposits at the time of writing.
"Regrettably, some of our team members were not fully aware of the intended purpose for these funds and inadvertently used a portion of them to participate in exchange campaigns. Upon realizing this error, we immediately contacted the exchange team and arranged for a full refund of the funds," Sun tweeted, apologizing for the supposed mistake.
According to the Tron founder, the funds were intended to provide TUSD liquidity to the crypto exchange, but Crypto Twitter is not buying it.
Crypto Twitter Shades Sun
Crypto community members doubting Sun’s professed intentions compared his statements to those from crypto influencer Nicole Behnam, allegedly involved in an NFT pump and dump scheme.
Highly followed crypto trader “Devchart,” @devchart on Twitter, making light of the situation, suggested that the Tron founder had been “caught red-handed.
Others have suggested that Binance could have prevented this by limiting how much a single account can stake.
SUI is the native token for Sui Network, a Layer-1 blockchain launched by former Meta Platforms employees.
On the Flipside
- With no upper limit on how much investors can stake to earn SUI as part of Binance’s program, it is theoretically easy for an anonymous whale to succeed where Sun may have failed.
Why You Should Care
Sun’s failed attempt to farm SUI in Binance’s Launchpool highlights whales‘ advantage over retail investors, regardless of whether or not it was intentional.
Read more about another Justin Sun deal with Binance that did not happen:
Binance-Huobi Deal: Justin Sun Denies Trying to Sell the Exchange
Is Bitcoin’s price being manipulated? Find out more:
Bitcoin: Traders Call for Caution, Say Price Is Being Manipulated
