Justin Sun Releases and Burns $800 Million TUSD Stablecoin

A series of transactions involving the issuance of over $800 million worth of TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin by Justin Sun has sparked curiosity within the community.

Justin Sun's Unusual Move: Minting over $800 Million in TUSD and Burning Them, Transitioning to stUSDT
Early morning on September 16, 2023, Justin Sun, a board member of Huobi Global (now HTX), initiated a large issuance of the TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin. This move caught the attention of traders as more than $815 million entered circulation in less than 15 minutes.

Market capitalization of the TUSD stablecoin fluctuated by over $800 million due to Justin Sun's actions

Data from Tronscan shows that starting around 10:45 PM on September 15, 2023, Vietnam time, $815 million in TUSD stablecoin was minted in bulk on the TRON blockchain through 10 transactions. With each minting, TUSD was transferred to a new wallet address, and subsequently, these addresses executed transfers to the Huobi 2 hot wallet.

Following this, a series of 9 transactions from the Huobi 2 addresses sent approximately $815 million worth of TUSD to the address "TT2T17KZhoDu47i2E4FWxfG79zdkEWkU9N," managed by Justin Sun.

A series of 9 transactions from the Huobi 2 addresses sent approximately $815 million worth of TUSD

Subsequently, all funds in Justin Sun's managed address were sent to an unlabeled contract named "MinterProxy." MinterProxy then transferred 865 million TUSD to the address "TQiXPTvHuqaBW94pqrbgwptkSFXsMLrxnM," from which the tokens were burned.

MinterProxy transferred 865 million TUSD to the address "TQiXPTvHuqaBW94pqrbgwptkSFXsMLrxnM," from which the tokens were burned.

However, the burning of TUSD seemed to "perfectly match" the minting of stUSDT. Across 10 transactions, $865 million in stUSDT was transferred to the wallet address "TT2T17KZhoDu47i2E4FWxfG79zdkEWkU9N" belonging to the Tron founder.

$865 million in stUSDT was transferred to Justin Sun's wallet address TT2T17KZhoDu47i2E4FWxfG79zdkEWkU9N

Justin Sun subsequently sent stUSDT to the JustLend lending platform on TRON through 6 different transactions. According to data from Tronscan, this deposit accounted for half of Sun's $1.3 billion position on JustLend.

The stUSDT is a liquid staking token of USDT on TRON, currently yielding 4.21%, with claims that the yield comes from real-world assets (RWA). According to the stUSDT website, the yield is generated through "high-quality government bonds." This product currently boasts over 351,000 users.

According to DeFiLlama data, the Total Value Locked (TVL) of JustLend increased by 22%, from $3.75 billion to $4.57 billion, following Justin Sun's deposits.

The TVL of JustLend increased by 22%, from $3.75 billion to $4.57 billion, following Justin Sun's deposits.

Tether Denies Affiliation with stUSDT
This revelation comes through a statement from a Tether spokesperson. In a recent interview with CryptoSlate, a representative of Tether stated that "stUSDT is an independent project and not affiliated with Tether."

1/ @Tether_to (USDT), a leading stablecoin issuer, clearly denies any affiliation with the Justin Sun-linked Staked Tether (stUSDT) protocol. A contradiction to #stUSDT's claim of partnership with Tether. #CryptoNews

via @hardeyjumoh https://t.co/zxV2ihGUVW— CryptoSlate (@CryptoSlate) September 15, 2023
This statement directly contradicts stUSDT's claim of a close relationship with Tether, prominently displayed on its official website. Among the listed partnerships of stUSDT are entities associated with Justin Sun such as HTX (formerly Huobi), JustLend, MetaMask, and TrueUSD (TUSD).

Justin Sun, who faced SEC allegations of fraud and securities violations in March 2023, stated that the transactions were related to his personal funds rather than business activities of Huobi.

Furthermore, in July 2023, the founder of Archblocks accused Justin Sun of being the buyer of the company issuing TUSD through several shell companies. Since then, a series of FUD has surrounded the Huobi exchange and its founder, leading to investigations of their senior personnel in China and a sell-off of USDT.

When questioned by an investor about the source of the TUSD reserve and where the funds to pay stUSDT yields came from, Justin Sun replied, "It's all in U.S. Treasury bonds."