ExclusiveJustin Sun eyes ‘Swift’ system for virtual asset sector, praises Hong Kong crypto progress

Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun says he is trying to establish the Tron blockchain, which he founded and launched in 2018, as the virtual asset industry’s answer to Swift – the main messaging network used by the global banking system – on the back of a surge in stablecoin transactions around the world. “I estimate that our facilitated transactions will exceed Swift’s in the next five years,” Sun, 35, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. He added that the transaction volume through Tron was already expected to reach US$8 trillion this year. “In the future, we can easily boost the transaction volume to US$300 trillion or US$400 trillion,” Sun said. “It won’t be a surprise if we could handle transactions 10 times or even 100 times larger than Swift.” The Belgium-based cooperative formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, Swift handles about US$150 trillion in cross-border financial transactions every year. Sun pointed out that Swift is processing transactions in days. By comparison, “Tron is facilitating transactions in seconds”, he said. His confidence reflects the growing influence of the Tron blockchain in stablecoin transactions globally. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that has a fixed value by being pegged to a reference asset, such as the US dollar. At the recent WebX2025 conference held in Tokyo, Sun touted that Tether USDT issuances on Tron have surpassed US$82 billion, which has made the blockchain the world’s largest network for these transactions. Facing competition from other blockchain systems such as Ethereum, Tron recently slashed network fees by 60 per cent to woo more users to his platform. While pushing forward his plans for Tron, Sun has grabbed international headlines for activities outside the cryptocurrency world. Earlier this month, Sun took a suborbital ride into space on Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, four years after he won the US$28 million auction for the flight’s first seat. In November, Sun live-streamed himself at The Peninsula Hong Kong hotel, as he ate the banana from an artwork for which he paid US$6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York. Sun said he was using Hong Kong as one of his bases – alongside his operations in Dubai, Singapore and the US – because he was bullish about the city’s long-term future in crypto. “I am optimistic about Hong Kong’s role in crypto over the long run,” he said. “I don’t think Hong Kong authorities have much choice. By positioning itself as a financial centre, the city can’t avoid embracing crypto.” Hong Kong has intensified its bid to become a global digital asset hub, following the release in June of an updated policy statement focused on accelerating stablecoin use and tokenisation efforts. The city ushered in a new era of digital finance on August 1, when its stablecoin ordinance took effect. This put cryptocurrency’s most-traded cash substitute under the same stringent oversight as banks, as it imposed strict requirements covering reserve management, client identification and anti-money-laundering. On the situation in mainland China, Sun said he expected the world’s second-largest economy to eventually embrace cryptocurrencies after years of maintaining a hostile regulatory stance. “The trend of technology will not change,” he said, adding that it was “just a matter of time” for China to embrace cryptocurrencies. “The speed of the process is up to regulators,” Sun said. “As crypto industry players, we have to continuously showcase our successful experiences to convince the regulators.” “Like the safety concern over space flight, if 100 successful experiments are not enough, we can go 500 times, 1,000 times and 10,000 times,” he said. “There will be a final threshold.” “The US has fully embraced the value of the crypto industry, which regulators around the world have noticed,” he said. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Sun has noticeably increased his business activities in the US. In July, Sun pledged to invest another US$100 million on $TRUMP meme coins. He was one of the top 220 holders of $TRUMP coins who had dinner at the White House in May. Sun took Tron public in the US in June via a reverse merger with toy manufacturer SRM Entertainment on the Nasdaq stock market.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The crypto entrepreneur wants to turn his Tron blockchain into the virtual asset industry’s answer to the banking sector’s Swift network

The crypto entrepreneur wants to turn his Tron blockchain into the virtual asset industry’s answer to the banking sector’s Swift network