After five years since mainnet launch, Tron has become the strongest public blockchain by Chinese developers. Sun Yuchen brings recognition to post-90s entrepreneurs with Tron.
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After five years since mainnet launch, Tron has become the strongest public blockchain by Chinese developers. Sun Yuchen brings recognition to post-90s entrepreneurs with Tron.
The crypto industry, capable of reshaping the world at lightning speed, has seen steady and sustained growth. What did Justin Sun and TRON do right?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWith over 160 million users, accounting for 60% of the circulating supply of the top stablecoin USDT, and total value locked (TVL) second only to Ethereum... on the fifth anniversary of the TRON mainnet launch, Sun Yuchen's established public blockchain has become widely recognized as the leading Chinese public chain and ranks among the world’s top three major blockchains.
Recently, news reached China that Dai Wei, a prominent millennial entrepreneur, had launched another startup in the U.S., drawing renewed public attention to millennials in entrepreneurship—Sun Yuchen, also a millennial founder, has once again come into the spotlight.
Despite controversies, Sun Yuchen has objectively maintained steady operations with TRON. Five years later, as the crypto industry has undergone sweeping changes, TRON remains active at the forefront, fulfilling Sun’s original promise by establishing TRON as one of the most critical infrastructures in the industry. Meanwhile, he has successfully reinvented himself as an evangelist continuously driving the crypto sector toward mainstream adoption and regulatory compliance.
Not all millennial entrepreneurs have “failed.” Sun Yuchen, often seen as unreliable or merely an internet celebrity, is offering an alternative narrative.
What Did TRON Do Right?
Rewind five years: On May 31, 2018, the TRON team held its mainnet launch event in Beijing. Investors attending the event came from China, Russia, Arab countries, Spain, South Korea, Japan, and other regions within the TRON community. The live stream of the event attracted up to 30 million viewers cumulatively, making the TRON mainnet launch one of the most watched events in the industry at the time.
Sun Yuchen stated that launching the TRON mainnet was not the final goal; the team would continue upgrading the network’s security, scalability, privacy, and user experience to better serve partners and developers. With the official launch of the TRON mainnet, Sun began his unique journey of operating and developing TRON.
Months before the mainnet launch, TRON was already gaining fame. Its native token TRX surged nearly 100x in early 2018, quickly entering the top 20 digital assets by market capitalization. It was an era when everyone dreamed big about cryptocurrency.
However, transformative change is inevitably difficult and long-term. Over five years, having weathered bear markets and resisted bull market temptations, the crypto industry has seemingly been "reborn." Many once-prominent "Ethereum killers" have vanished, while new public chains struggle to overcome operational bottlenecks. Yet TRON, one of the earliest players, continues thriving on the front lines, growing increasingly competitive—closing in on, and in some aspects even surpassing, Ethereum.
As Sun Yuchen promised, TRON has become one of the most important infrastructures in the crypto space. Today, TRON maintains strong presence and performance across key sectors such as DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins, metaverse, GameFi, cross-chain technology, and decentralized identity (DID).
This robust ecosystem has fueled vibrant on-chain activity. According to data from tronscan.org, TRON’s user base has surpassed 160 million, with over 5.7 billion transactions processed. The circulating supply of USDT on TRON exceeds $46 billion, and its total value locked (TVL) ranks second only to Ethereum.
In an industry where change happens in seconds, how did Sun Yuchen and TRON achieve sustainable growth?
The answer lies primarily in respecting common sense and returning to fundamentals. During the initial public chain hype, while others focused on invisible applications, Sun Yuchen consistently prioritized real-world use cases for cryptocurrencies themselves. Recognizing limitations in early-stage blockchain development, he positioned TRON as a carrier for large-scale stable-value assets. This foresight directly led to TRON’s dominant market position in the stablecoin sector, giving it a significant head start.
Secondly, TRON placed high importance on regulatory compliance and recognition from the mainstream world. Globally, TRON has maintained close cooperation with governments and regulators. For example, TRON partnered with global asset management giant VanEck to successfully list a TRX ETN on the German Stock Exchange, which then entered fourteen major European financial markets. In 2022, when Hong Kong announced new crypto policies, TRON declared full support for Hong Kong’s Web3.0 development.
Last October, Sun Yuchen advanced TRON to become the designated national blockchain infrastructure for the Caribbean nation of Dominica. This made TRON the first major public blockchain to collaborate with a sovereign state on blockchain infrastructure. Seven cryptocurrencies under the TRON ecosystem were adopted as legal digital currencies in Dominica—an important milestone that significantly elevated TRON’s global compliance efforts and marked a new level of integration between blockchain technology and sovereign nations.
Sun Yuchen’s “Change” Is Actually “Consistency”
Sun Yuchen is a seasoned entrepreneur whose career spans diverse roles. He exhibits multiple personalities and working styles, along with evolving goals and visions, making it hard to pin him down to a single identity. His entrepreneurial journey has seen many ups and downs, attracting considerable controversy. Changeability may be how the public perceives him.
Yet, in reality, his apparent changes are precisely driven by unwavering ideals and goals.
As a millennial entrepreneur, Sun Yuchen leveraged his unique insights and innovative spirit in blockchain technology to build TRON—the leading Chinese public chain. But his ambition extends far beyond just building infrastructure. Over ten years of entrepreneurship, through intense industry volatility and regulatory crackdowns, Sun has remained steadfastly focused on the crypto industry.
In a recent interview, Sun Yuchen revealed for the first time his three core identities: since entering the crypto space, he has always been a坚定 evangelist, advocate, and builder of the crypto world. As founder of TRON and member of Huobi Global Advisory Board, he is a long-term builder of industry infrastructure. And starting from his role as Grenada’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, over the past year, Sun Yuchen and TRON have engaged frequently with sovereign states, international organizations, and regulatory bodies, serving as a bridge between the crypto industry and regulators.
At a time when many—including regulators—view cryptocurrencies as dangerous, Sun Yuchen persistently ignores criticism and actively promotes the positive societal impact of crypto to both the public and authorities.
As one of the industry’s leaders, Sun Yuchen has become a communication bridge between the crypto sector and major global media outlets. International financial media including Bloomberg, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and Benzinga have conducted interviews or live connections with him, discussing hot topics in crypto and global regulatory trends.
Sun Yuchen has also attempted to leverage diplomatic engagement and policy breakthroughs to amplify broader influence and build consensus. At the 2022 WTO MC12 conference, he used the platform to emphasize to representatives from over 160 countries and regions the importance of blockchain and crypto technologies in revitalizing the global economy.
On October 31 last year, Hong Kong released its policy statement on virtual asset development, immediately capturing global attention from Web3 practitioners and institutions. Sun Yuchen was among the first industry leaders to publicly express full support for Hong Kong’s new crypto initiatives.
Frequently attending events to back Hong Kong, explaining the historic significance of its crypto policies to media, and even participating offline in the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, Sun Yuchen became a celebrated figure in Hong Kong.
For Sun Yuchen and TRON, Hong Kong’s new crypto policies hold special significance. On one hand, as a global financial center, Hong Kong’s influence will radiate internationally. On the other, as a Special Administrative Region of China, it could serve as a testing ground, with its experiences potentially informing future mainland policy. Most importantly, Hong Kong represents the ideal place for Sun Yuchen and the crypto industry to reclaim legitimacy.
Some domestic media outlets grouped Sun Yuchen and Dai Wei together as examples of a "lost generation" of millennial entrepreneurs—suggesting they failed to become rule-makers or iconic figures because they emerged during an era of noise, superficiality, and rising materialism. Labeled as internet celebrities, their early ventures appeared overly eager for quick success. Thus, when the tide receded, they faded away.
Indeed, both Sun Yuchen and Dai Wei lived through this noisy, materialistic era. But unlike Dai Wei, Sun Yuchen’s TRON has undergone phoenix-like rebirth amid market turbulence and regulatory storms, emerging as one of the most vital infrastructures in the crypto industry.
As the media noted, when the great tide retreats and materialism washes away, the stage ultimately belongs to those who uphold long-term values. After five years of persistence, Sun Yuchen and TRON remain in the spotlight—with the opportunity to redefine what it means to be a millennial entrepreneur.
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