Most investors are happy making money, but Justin Sun is one of those who are happy losing money.
Calm seems to have returned to the Wall Street realm as the hype of WallStreetBets came to an end. After a massive pump orchestrated by thousands – perhaps millions – of amateur investors who joined forces on the biggest short-squeeze in decades, the invisible hand of the market pulled its strings returning the prices of several meme stocks very close to their initial state.
Indeed, many shared their insane profits after buying GameStop, AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and silver before the pump, making 10X and even 100X gains. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, was one of the investors who bought these stocks… But he is not among the ones bragging about their mad gainz.
Justin Sun Makes a $10 Milllion Bet on the Wrong Stock
Justin Sun joined the stock rush in late January, and he went big: His first move was a $10 million purchase of GameStop stocks. He decided to go for $10 million because $1 million seemed like too little of an investment.
$1 Mil doesn’t seem enough, I’ll be buying $10 Mil $GME instead tonight from Asia when market opens! It’s time to unite & squeeze out those greedy hedge funds! Wallstreetbets, 4 billion Asian community & 20 mil $TRX community supports u! Let’s do this! ????@WSBChairman @wsbmod pic.twitter.com/d494a77RNq
— Justin Sun?? (@justinsuntron) January 29, 2021
A few days later, he shared on Twitter his decision to invest in $AMC, another stock that was being pumped by the guys of r/WallStreetBets. This announcement was followed by a $1 million silver purchase.
After $GME, looks like everyone in #wallstreetbets loves $AMC, so I’ll be buying $1 Mil of #AMC on Monday when market opens in Asia! Let’s keep the momentum going everyone! r/Wallstreetbets, don’t worry, I along w/ #TRON community has got your back!! Let the battle continue!
— Justin Sun?? (@justinsuntron) February 1, 2021
All of these investments came just in time for, erm, the dump.
The stocks went into a tailspin, and Justin Sun himself estimates that he has lost about 75% of his money. Speaking to Bloomberg, the man behind Tron confessed that his $8 million investment in GameStop is now worth about $2 million.
Money Is Not The Most Important Thing In The World… Tron Is
However, Sun values other things beyond money. And social trends are at the forefront of his priorities. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, he explained that he would continue to hodl it simply because he appreciates the paradigm shift:
“I think I’m going to hold. Even if I lose money on the GME stock, I still believe this is a paradigm shift … In the past we all followed the advice from the financial analysts, and these days people are going to make their own decisions.”
This could be a heavy blow considering that his personal fortune is estimated to be in the order of $200 million. But perhaps this is of no concern to a Justin Sun who paid $4.6 million to talk about crypto with a billionaire who considers them as rat poison.
But in Justin Sun’s mindset, this is probably a way for him to win by losing. His move opened him the doors of a community of several million users in a forum that literally prohibits discussions about cryptocurrencies. Besides, once his losses were known, Tron -his cryptocurrency- became a global trending topic, reporting gains of almost 35% in one week.
An expensive PR strategy. Effective, but expensive.
