Justin Sun, the founder of Tron (TRX), has accused First Digital Trust (FDT) of orchestrating a major financial scandal involving the misuse of reserves backing the TUSD stablecoin.
According to Sun, the misconduct rivals, and even surpasses, the collapse of FTX, making it one of the most severe cases in the crypto sector.
Sun claims that FDT withdrew approximately $456 million from TUSD’s reserves without informing users, subsequently issuing the amount as an unsecured loan to a dubious entity based in Dubai. He suspects that the transaction may be linked to money laundering and embezzlement, presenting it as a criminal scheme.
While reflecting on the FTX debacle, Sun pointed out a stark difference between the two cases. He argued that despite Sam Bankman-Fried’s misuse of customer funds, the FTX founder at least utilized tokens such as FTT and SRM as loan collateral and invested in established companies like Robinhood and Anthropic. In contrast, Sun alleges that FDT transferred funds into suspicious assets without providing any collateral or maintaining transparency.
Sun further criticized FDT’s response to the crisis, contrasting it with the approach taken by Bankman-Fried, who cooperated with authorities to help recover customer assets. In Sun’s view, FDT’s leaders have remained silent and indifferent, worsening the situation.
He also expressed concern about the potential impact on Hong Kong’s financial reputation, urging local regulators to act swiftly and decisively, similar to how U.S. authorities handled the FTX fallout. According to Sun, the failure to address the situation could undermine confidence in Hong Kong as a financial hub.
Sun also disclosed that he had been approached for financial support during both the FTX and FDT crises. Although he refused to assist FTX due to the scale of the collapse, he felt compelled to cover user losses in the FDT incident because of his advisory role with Techteryx, a company linked to the TUSD ecosystem.
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