The Crypto Billionaire Who Helped the Trump Family Make $400 Million

He is the second Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes after Jack Ma, and the fourth exchange leader globally to receive this honor

In March 2025, Sun Yuchen graced the cover of the English edition of Forbes, a feat highlighting the headline " Trump Family Makes $400 Million From Crypto Investments." He is the second Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes after Jack Ma, and the fourth exchange leader globally to receive this honor—previously, only Binance's Zhao Changpeng (CZ), FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), and Coinbase's Brian Armstrong had held this position.

As the Forbes cover shifted from Jack Ma's "Sword Fighting at West Lake" to Sun Yuchen's "Crypto Evangelism," a metaphor about the generational shift in business power began to emerge: traditional internet giants are giving way to crypto newcomers, and Chinese entrepreneurs are transforming from "followers" to "rule makers."

Forbes Cover Code: Who is Defining the New Era of Business Standards?

The selection of cover figures by Forbes has never been random. From Bill Gates to Elon Musk, from Jack Ma to Sun Yuchen, there have always been two ironclad rules behind it: "Quantifiable Business Dominance" and "Irreplaceable Rule-Making Authority."

In the traditional business era, Jack Ma became the first Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of the English edition of Forbes, thanks to Alibaba's GMV myth and the vision of "making it easy to do business anywhere." The logic for selection at that time was clear and singular: whoever could represent the explosive growth of the Chinese market would gain the spotlight of the global media.

In the crypto era, however, Forbes' value coordinates are shifting. When Sun Yuchen appeared on the cover alongside TRON and Huobi HTX, the judges valued not only trading volume or user numbers but also the potential for "technological reconstruction of the global financial order."

Sun Yuchen's "Three Polar Advantages": Technology, Capital, and Brand Power

1. Technological Infrastructure: The Invisible Overlord of Global Payment Chains

"At one point, over half of USDT was issued on TRON because the transaction fees on TRON are much cheaper," Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino commented on TRON in a news interview.

According to the latest data from the TRON blockchain, its total locked value (TVL) has surpassed $19.7 billion, with a user base nearing 300 million, USDT liquidity exceeding $66.6 billion, and processing over 14 million USDT transactions weekly, accounting for more than half of global USDT activity. This means tens of millions of users are seamlessly utilizing the payment network built by Sun Yuchen.

2. Breaking Business Barriers: When Crypto Meets Traditional Power

In 2024, Sun Yuchen added a new title as an advisor to the Trump family's cryptocurrency project WLFI (World Liberty Financial), investing $75 million in WLFI, becoming the largest investor in the project. Various collaborations demonstrate a textbook-level "monetization of political resources": cryptocurrency has become a fundraising tool and a battleground for public opinion in the U.S. election year for the first time.

"This proves that crypto assets are no longer just geek toys but strategic weapons capable of leveraging real power," Forbes wrote in its cover story.

3. Brand Power Construction: Huobi HTX's Counter-Cyclical Growth

During the darkest moments of the industry trust crisis triggered by the FTX collapse, Huobi HTX, which Sun Yuchen took over, completed an "extreme transformation":

According to an industry report released by CoinDesk Data on February 27, Huobi HTX has achieved remarkable results in its global layout, successfully ranking among the top three in global euro stablecoin trading volume, and its competitiveness in international markets is continuously strengthening. At the same time, Huobi HTX was successfully selected as one of "Forbes' 25 Most Trusted Cryptocurrency Exchanges in 2025."

The Ecological Landscape Behind the Cover: What Kind of Business Leaders Does China Need?

In 2015, when Jack Ma appeared on the Forbes cover, Chinese internet companies were still striving to prove the validity of the "Copy to China" model, today, Sun Yuchen and others are practicing the global ambition of "Copy from China."

The deep-seated motivation for this shift stems from the secret resonance between the crypto industry and Chinese business genes:

At the moment Sun Yuchen appears on the global cover of Forbes, he is only 35 years old, and everything is just beginning. As a young leader in the crypto industry, he represents not only the vast development potential of the crypto field but also the mainstream society's curiosity and expectations for crypto. Sun Yuchen once said in a live broadcast, "We can prove to the outside world that the crypto industry can represent the image and interests of Chinese people internationally." He has demonstrated that Chinese entrepreneurs can still hold industry discourse power without relying on the domestic market.

When the Cover Becomes a New