Our weekly updates are put together by folks deep in the crypto scene, giving you a clear picture of what's happening without overwhelming you.
To Watch This Week
AIRDROPS + ALPHADec 5, 2024
Markets
South Korea Martial Law Declaration Highlighted Tron Dominance: Analyst
Tron is up 66.5% this week, consolidating gains after South Korea's failed power grab and martial law highlighted its popularity in that market. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on live television on Dec. 3. He claimed that the opposition sympathized with North Korea and declared the activities of the National Assembly (the country’s parliament), other political activities, protests, and demonstrations illegal while also putting media under military control. This was fo...
Dec 4, 2024
Markets
Tron Crypto Hits New High Above $0.43 Amid Broader Altcoin Surge
TRON's TRX token has reached its highest record price, beating out a seven-year high amid an explosive rally that saw it reach just above $0.43. Tron swelled by 81% on Tuesday, pushing its market capitalization beyond $35.1 billion, CoinGecko data shows. It coincides with other cryptos, including XRP’s and Hedera’s (HBAR) push this week as investors speculate on shifting regulatory winds in the U.S. By contrast, market-leading cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum remain little changed over the...
Nov 29, 2024
Business
Justin Sun Still Plans to Buy 100,000 Bananas After Art Auction Backlash
After purchasing a duct-taped banana at auction for $6.24 million last week, crypto billionaire Justin Sun announced he would reward the banana’s original vendor—a Manhattan fruit merchant who parted ways with it for 25 cents—by offering to buy 100,000 additional bananas from the man’s sidewalk stand. But shortly thereafter, the vendor dismissed the plan as nearly impossible to execute and said it would reap barely any profit. Tron officials told Decrypt on Friday that it is in communication wit...
Nov 29, 2024
Business
Inflation? Justin Sun Eats Banana He Bought for $6.2 Million
Ever wondered what millions of dollars tasted like? Well, apparently, a banana. Justin Sun, founder of layer-1 blockchain Tron, ate the banana that he bought for $6.24 million last week at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in New York. The yellow fruit was part of Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 conceptual artwork of a duct-taped banana, called “Comedian,” which has become a highly memeable art piece—with two related meme coins to boot. 孙哥现场吃🍌 pic.twitter.com/qYi2UJ6zYl — TechFlow 深潮|APP 已上...
Nov 21, 2024
Coins
Justin Sun Goes Bananas: Snags Controversial “Comedian” Artwork for $6.2 Million
What’s worth millions, taped to a wall, and destined to rot? Hint: It’s art you can’t hang for long. Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous duct-taped banana art piece, Comedian, fetched an eye-popping $6.24 million, including fees, at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in New York on Wednesday night. The sale saw six bidders battle it out before Jen Hua, deputy chairman of Sotheby's and chairman of Sotheby's China, placed the winning bid on Tron founder Justin Sun’s behalf. Sotheby's to Auction 'A.I. Go...
Oct 10, 2024
Law and Order
Justin Sun Is Now Prime Minister of Liberland—What Does That Even Mean?
Tron founder Justin Sun is many things. You can now count prime minister among them. This week, the micronation of Liberland—a largely theoretical European state cooked up by right-wing libertarians in 2015—announced that it elected Sun to serve as its head of state. So what exactly does that mean in practical terms? It depends on who you ask. The average person might say “nothing at all,” given the fact that Liberland lays claim to 2.7 miles of disputed, uninhabited floodplain currently being...
Oct 8, 2024
Coins
Hip Hop Artist Ty Dolla $ign Drops $500K on Tron Meme Coin Sundog
Grammy-nominated rapper Ty Dolla $ign marked his entry into the meme coin space by dropping 3.2 million TRX, approximately $502,000, into Sundog ($SUNDOG), a meme coin built on the TRON blockchain on Monday. The rapper’s move followed a series of tweets and light-hearted banter with American professional boxer and Sundog aficionado Ryan Garcia, who encouraged him to “bet on Sundog.” Ty Dolla $ign began showing interest on October 3, when the rapper tweeted, "What's up with all these memecoins th...
Sep 23, 2024
Business
HTX and Tron Team Up to Create ‘Thriving Web3 Ecosystem’
Blockchain platform Tron and crypto exchange HTX are embarking on a “twin-engine strategy for future development,” with the goal of building an “all-encompassing Web3 ecosystem,” Tron founder Justin Sun said in a keynote address. Speaking at a HTX DAO x Tron afterparty following the Token2049 event in Singapore, Sun outlined plans to create a Web3 ecosystem that “integrates payments, investments, and social interactions” through closer collaboration between HTX and Tron. “We will focus on drivin...
Sep 12, 2024
Coins
Solana’s Pump.Fun Has Launched Millions of Tokens—Fewer Than 100 Are Worth Much at All
Solana meme coin factory Pump.fun has failed to keep more than 100 tokens above the $1 million market cap milestone. This comes as the protocol starts to fall out of favor after its summer-time high. A total of 89 Pump.fun coins are currently above a market cap of $1 million, according to Pump.fun. This means just 0.0045% of the near 2 million tokens are sitting above $1 million. That said, over the past 24 hours, only 1.5% of tokens launched have “graduated” to Solana decentralized exchange Ra...
Sep 10, 2024
Markets
Tron Token TRX Slips as Meme Coin Traders Lose Interest in SunPump
Tron (TRX) has fallen out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko. This comes as meme coin traders appear to be losing interest in the network’s meme coin launchpad, SunPump. Following the launch of SunPump by Tron’s controversial founder Justin Sun, TRX climbed 24.8% to $0.168 as it broke into the top 10 cryptocurrencies. At this peak, SunPump was responsible for 7,531 tokens being created on Tron. But for the past two days, SunPump has seen fewer than 1,...
Sep 5, 2024
Coins
Pump.fun Retakes Lead Over Tron's SunPump as Justin Sun Pushes 'Celebrity Season'
Solana-based meme coin factory Pump.fun has retaken a key statistical lead over SunPump, nearly two weeks after the Tron token launchpad flipped Pump.fun in daily created coins. On August 21, SunPump created 1,658 more tokens than Pump.fun over a 24 hour period. But this token creation dominance was short-lived. On Wednesday, according to Dune data, SunPump created just 1,258 tokens, falling 83% from 7,531 tokens created just two weeks prior. This decline can also be seen in the Tron launchpad...
Aug 26, 2024
Markets
Tron Jumps Into Top 10 on Meme Coin Hype as Telegram-Linked TON Falls
Tron (TRX) has leapfrogged Toncoin (TON) to become the 10th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, following the arrest of Telegram boss Pavel Durov and a spike in interest in meme coins on Tron. However, the race is tight: TRX's market cap currently stands at $14.31 billion; TON's is $14.23 billion. French authorities arrested Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram, outside of Paris on Saturday. The price of The Open Network's TON plummeted as the coin is closely af...
Aug 23, 2024
Coins
Justin Sun’s USDD Stablecoin Loses Bitcoin Backing
The USDD stablecoin, issued by the TRON DAO Reserve, has lost its Bitcoin backing with the removal of 12,000 BTC from its formerly listed collateral address. Without the Bitcoin, worth around $726 million, USDD is now primarily backed by TRX, the native token of the Tron blockchain. The move—spotted on X on Tuesday—was made without any apparent official action by the TRON DAO. Responding to reports of the shift, Tron founder Justin Sun said on X (aka Twitter) that what's happening is “not myster...
Aug 21, 2024
Markets
SunPump Flips Pump.Fun in Daily Meme Coins as Traders Shift to Tron
Tron’s new meme coin launchpad SunPump appears to have stolen the attention of degen traders from leading Solana platform Pump.fun, with the recently launched rival responsible for more new tokens over the last day. Pump.fun has dominated this year’s meme coin market with many of the biggest winners—such as Billy, Michi, and more—having launched via the protocol. At its peak, Pump.fun was being used to launch over 20,000 tokens a day, drawing over $2 million in revenue as a result. But these num...
Apr 19, 2024
Law and Order
SEC Amends Justin Sun Lawsuit to Cite His Extensive Travel in US
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an amended complaint in its lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun, arguing that because he "traveled extensively" to the U.S., the case falls under the country's jurisdiction. In the complaint, the SEC notes that over three years from 2017 to 2019, Sun spent around 380 days in the U.S., undertaking business trips to New York City, Boston and San Francisco in 2019. The SEC also pointed to Sun's stays at a apartment in the U.S. rented b...
Apr 16, 2024
Business
Hans Zimmer Composed a Tron 'Anthem' for Justin Sun—Yes, Really
Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer has crafted some of cinema’s most iconic scores for films including “Inception,” “The Dark Knight,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Gladiator,” and “The Lion King.” His musical themes have introduced audiences to far-away planets, Sherlock Holmes’ Victorian London, and the world of James Bond. Now, Zimmer has apparently focused his musical prowess on a far less sweeping subject: controversial Tron founder Justin Sun. On Tuesday, the composer released a n...
Feb 21, 2024
Coins
Circle Axes Support for USDC on Tron, Citing 'Risk Management'
USDC issuer Circle has discontinued support for the stablecoin on the Tron blockchain, the firm announced today. In a blog post, the firm said that it would no longer mint USDC on Tron, "effective immediately," and that it will support Circle Mint customers' transfers of USDC from Tron to other blockchains through to Feburary 2025. Retail users can move USDC on Tron to exchanges where it can be transferred to USDC-supported blockchains. The firm stated that it "continually assesses the suitabili...
Jul 13, 2023
Business
Tron DAO To Kick Off Builder Tour In New York
Tron DAO and BitTorrent Chain have announced the Tron Builder Tour, co-hosted by Huobi Ventures, a global outreach program to encourage developers to build on its blockchain. “It’s all aboard the blockchain bullet train!” the organizers of the world tour said. “And the sign at the station reads: ‘Developers wanted. Decentralized future ahead.’” Starting in July, the Tron DAO developer relations team will host a series of hackathons —or HackaTrons —in different cities. Launching alongside the lat...
Jul 6, 2023
Technology
Tron Launches HackaTron Season 5 Alongside Builder Tour
Leading public blockchain platform Tron, in collaboration with Huobi Ventures, and BitTorrent Chain , will open submissions for the fifth season of its popular HackaTron on July 6, 2023. A pool worth up to $500,000 is up for grabs for developers who impress the judges with promising blockchain solutions and decentralized applications. Season five of the HackaTron presents a reorganized structure, with five tracks—including, for the first time, a new AI strand. The other four tracks include Web3,...
Jun 1, 2023
Business
Looking for Digital Citizenship in Dominica? Justin Sun Says Huobi Has a Token for That
As regulations tighten in on crypto, Tron founder Justin Sun says tokenized know-your-customer (KYC) checks will become commonplace. According to him, one can’t rule out that, for example, the U.S. government will not require anyone swapping crypto tokens to go through KYC checks, meaning that “if you want to develop a decentralized exchange like Uniswap, you also want KYC for all your on-chain users.” “In the future, we will probably have these kinds of licenses for decentralized exchanges," ad...