Speaking to his followers in a live stream hosted by Poloniex this week, Tron founder Justin Sun revealed that he was one of the investors to purchase a stake in the US crypto exchange earlier this year.
While Poloniex was acquired by global financial services company Circle just 18 months ago, it has since spun-off from its parent company to form an independent entity.
Sun was quick to remind his followers that while he did indeed have an interest in Poloniex, the company remained independent and was not under the control of Tron.
Rumours that Sun may be involved in the acquisition first surfaced in October following an initial announcement from Circle that the newly formed parent company of Poloniex, Polo Digital Assets, had been backed by an Asian investment group.
Despite this, the young Tron founder initially dismissed reports that he had been part of the acquisition, which may have been because negotiations were still ongoing.
What is Poloniex?
Formerly one of the largest exchanges in the crypto market, Poloniex is a US-based exchange which was founded in 2014. It’s currently one of the oldest and most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges available.
Poloniex has also committed to serving institutional investors, launching dedicated accounts for financial professionals and offering large over-the-counter trades and high withdrawal limits for accredited traders.
The exchange has recently been implementing a number of fiat-backed stablecoins to facilitate trading, including Tron’s own version of Tether.
Sun’s investment
With Poloniex still operating as an independent entity, many may question what Sun’s interest in the exchange is.
Sun’s announcement came shortly after the news that TRX, the Tron protocol’s native token, has been listed on the exchange with Bitcoin, Tether, and USDC pairings.
The listing gives Tron a new route into American markets, which is something Sun has been keen to develop since founding the protocol. In 2018, Tron opened an office in San Francisco and has been expanding its operations there since.
Tron also acquired leading peer-to-peer file network BitTorrent this year, through which the company launched the BTT token to meet its goal of decentralising media access across the web.
During the live stream, Sun announced that he and the other investors in Poloniex would be helping to grow the exchange’s current operations.
Sun did not reveal the value of his investment nor his stake in Poloniex.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.