Tron Founder Justin Sun Reportedly Lost His Diplomatic Status

Cheyenne Ligon is a CoinDesk news reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She has no significant crypto holdings.

Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk’s managing editor for global policy and regulation. He owns marginal amounts of bitcoin and ether.

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Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, is reportedly no longer a diplomat for Grenada.

According to a report from the Grenada Broadcasting Network this week, Sun was stripped of his status as ambassador sometime after elections held in June 2022, when the New National Party, which granted Sun his position, was ousted by the National Democratic Congress.

GBN reported that all ambassadors were recalled sometime in the “early months” of the now nine-month-old administration, though Sun hasn’t publicly acknowledged the loss of his position. The report follows weeks of speculation on both social media and in the press that Sun may have lost his credentials.

Sun was appointed as World Trade Organization ambassador by the government of Grenada in 2021.

Since his appointment, Sun has touted his credentials, styling himself “His Excellency” in interviews and on his social-media accounts. Sun tweeted from his diplomatic Twitter account (@HEjustinsun) as recently as October, and, as of press time, he still maintained the “H.E.” honorific on his personal Twitter account. He has given no indication that he is no longer an ambassador.

Officials with Grenada’s foreign affairs office and government information services didn’t return requests for comment about whether Sun is still a diplomat.

Representatives for Sun, as well as his company, Tron, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sun was sued for fraud and securities violations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Sun, along with three of his companies including the Tron Foundation, was accused of manipulating the market for Tron’s native token, TRX, through “extensive wash trading” and for “orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to tout TRX … without disclosing their compensation.” Eight celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul, were also charged and have since settled.

Helene Braun contributed reporting to this story.

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