Crypto boss to blow whistle on 'ponzi scheme' in city

Staff reporter and agencies

Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun Yuchen is to hold a press conference on Thursday in Hong Kong to reveal a "ponzi scheme" involving a "traditional financial institution" in the city and Web3 platforms.

The invitation was issued by Tron, the company behind the eponymous cryptocurrency founded by Sun in 2017.

This comes nearly two years after Hong Kong's regulator started investigating the alleged fraud related to the over-the-counter exchange JPEX, which was estimated to involve assets worth HK$1.6 billion.

Last year, Sun famously bid for an artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall at auction for US$6.2 million (HK$48.36 million) and later livestreamed himself eating the banana.

In 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Sun and his companies Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry in March 2023. However, SEC was reported last month that it was exploring a resolution to its closely followed civil fraud case against Sun, who is also an adviser to a crypto project backed by US President Donald Trump.

Sun was featured on the cover of an edition of Forbes last week, which called him the "Crypto billionaire who helped the Trumps make US$400 million.