Despite Denials, Tron Founder Confirms Investment in Poloniex Crypto Exchange

Justin Sun, founder of crypto platform Tron, said he is part of the investor group that recently acquired Poloniex from fintech firm Circle, after denying his involvement initially.

Speaking at a joint Tron-Poloniex event live-streamed over Twitter on Tuesday, Sun said Tron was among several investors in the exchange, but the exchange is operated independently from his company.

Founded in 2014, Poloniex was acquired by Circle in early 2018 for $400 million. The exchange, which once commanded more than 50 percent of exchange transactions, has seen steadily dwindling volume in recent times. Before its recent dispersal, Poloniex had little more than 1 percent of the exchange market.

“Poloniex is one of the biggest exchanges in our industry,” Sun said. “I think the exchange is going to grow and that’s why we collaborate with it to have more initiatives.”

Those initiatives include listing Tron's tokens on Poloniex and an airdrop campaign of USDT and TRX20 for users on the platform in the next few weeks, Sun said.

While Sun said Tron will also collaborate with Poloniex on trading, he declined to reveal further details about the initiative or other areas of cooperation.

Sun also described Poloniex’s strategy to woo Chinese crypto investors. Chinese users will be able to log in through a new domain pwang.com – which still directs to Poloniex – and the exchange also accepts Chinese government IDs for Know-Your-Customer regulatory purposes, he said.

Last month, Poloniex announced plans to spin out from Circle into a new company called Polo Digital Assets. The new owners planned to spend more than $100 million and shift away from the U.S. to the global market, the company said.

Denying that he had invested in Poloniex, Sun tweeted on the same day: “I’m not buying anything.”

Justin Sun Image via CoinDesk archives