In the fall of 2025, when Blue Origin's rocket tore through the atmosphere and sent Justin Sun into the weightless universe, the world's view of him was at a delicate critical point.

On the ground, he was once a defendant in an SEC indictment, the most controversial "public enemy" in the crypto world, a symbol wrapped in public opinion and speculation. But off the ground, a "financial Cthulhu" he personally built is surging through every capillary of global finance, with over 10 billion in transactions.

This space journey was both a long-awaited coronation and a look back, showcasing Sun's two lives—the defendant in the eye of the storm and the architect of a new world—simultaneously and in an unprecedented way.

The Dock (Eye of the Storm)

In March 2023, when the announcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indictment spread around the world, many felt that the era of Justin Sun, rife with controversy, was drawing to a close. Every word in the announcement—"fraud," "market manipulation"—seemed to seal his past public image: the embodiment of the crypto world's "original sin," a financial speculator skilled in empty promises and hype. The story seemed to have come to an end, but a new chapter had just begun.

At the center of the storm, Justin Sun remained remarkably calm. Rather than engaging in a heated rebuttal on social media, he issued a brief, restrained statement. Less well known was that, via encrypted video conferencing, he was directing one of the most thrilling and successful capital operations in the history of the crypto world.

At the time, the crypto industry was experiencing its darkest hour following the collapse of FTX, with trust shattered and liquidity nearly dried up. Huobi (later rebranded as Huobi HTX), the exchange he had just appointed as a global advisor, was a small boat bobbing in the storm. Everyone believed he had chosen the most perilous moment to support a shaky platform.

However, Justin Sun demonstrated his ruthless yet precise nature as a strategic advisor. Under his primary advice, HTX's focus shifted from pumping and dangling prices to rebuilding trust. Huobi HTX published key data, including its Merkle Tree Reserve Proof, monthly, providing a complete and transparent view of the platform's assets to all users. This seemingly suicidal act of transparency would later become a cornerstone and standard for rebuilding trust across the entire industry.

He firmly believed that after the panic, what people most desired was not false prosperity but a genuine sense of security. This advice proved to be correct. While other exchanges were still struggling with bank runs, funds, like a tide, quietly flowed back to this most honest platform.

At that moment, the outside world vaguely realized for the first time that Sun Yuchen, whom they thought was only able to manipulate public opinion, might not have the real weapon of his words, but a profound insight into human nature and the flow of capital.

The Invisible Empire

Outside the public eye, Justin Sun has long been quietly acting as the "creator of a new world system." He is obsessed with building infrastructure, those boring and complex underlying rules that can determine the life and death of an ecosystem.

The first pillar is a free-flowing value network

He never attempted to package TRON as a cutting-edge public blockchain, but rather to build it into a "highway." His goal was clear and almost boring: to infinitely reduce transaction costs.

While the industry is keen on discussing various advanced consensus algorithms, he only cares about one thing: how to reduce the cost for a young person in the third world to transfer $1 on the chain from $10 to 1 cent.

By 2024, the power of this highway will be fully demonstrated. TRON, with its unparalleled low fees, has become the world's largest stablecoin circulation network, quietly becoming an "institutional tool" for tens of millions of people to hedge against real-world risks.

The second pillar is a world-class asset issuance and trading center

After stabilizing its position, and under the influence of Justin Sun's advisory role, Huobi HTX transformed from a simple "exchange" into a "hub for asset issuance and liquidity." Through its investment arm, HTX Ventures, Huobi launched a series of Web3 incubation and investment programs, screening promising startups globally.

Unlike traditional platforms, Huobi HTX not only provides funding but also a comprehensive suite of ecosystem services, from underlying technical support and token economic model design to initial user traffic. Huobi HTX is no longer a "landlord" waiting for projects to come and collect rent, but has become an "incubator" for new projects.

The third pillar is a channel of influence to the future

While the entire crypto industry sought to curry favor with the Washington establishment, Justin Sun once again bucked the prevailing view: embracing the Trump family. In 2024, he keenly perceived that, with the US election approaching, Trump and the political forces he represented were viewing cryptocurrency as an anti-establishment banner against the existing financial system and to attract young voters. He decisively staked his resources and industry influence on this emerging political trend.

He began publicly interacting with the Trump family in the crypto space, attending Trump dinners. At this point, he was no longer a "diplomat" seeking a place within the rules of the old world, but had become the crypto think tank behind the new political forces. He traded real money and immense community influence for a ticket to the future center of power.

Justin Sun attends Trump dinner

When the three pillars were in place like the giant roots of Yggdrasil, people suddenly realized that, under the cover of controversy, Justin Sun had quietly built a huge digital economy based on TRON's value network, with HTX, to which he provided consulting advice, as a strategic hub, and connected to the core channels of influence in the future.

Looking back from space

In the fall of 2025, when Blue Origin's rocket sent Justin Sun into suborbital space, people's views on this "Brother Sun" were quietly changing.

Whether controversial or outrageous, this "Brother Sun" is using his own way to "build the infrastructure for humanity's future." The former defendant is now a business leader who cannot be ignored.

In the weightless cabin, Justin Sun gazed at the blue planet through the porthole. What he saw was no longer the national borders on the map, but an invisible network of data streams covering the entire globe.

Justin Sun took a photo with his childhood photos in space

On this blue planet, a USDT payment from Country A is being made to a freelancer in Country B via the TRON blockchain. A small startup team, supported by Huobi HTX, is building the next application that could change the world. And on the desks of some politicians, their proposals for the future regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies may be included in the draft.

Everything he built was actually running on that planet, operating millions of times per second, affecting the lives of countless people. This was an almost godlike perspective, a profound satisfaction for an architect gazing upon his own masterpiece.

After returning from space, he became more pragmatic, expressing his views on promoting the improvement of the industry as an "industry consultant." He seemed to be trying to play a new role: introducing order and rules to a wild and untamed world he had created.

He remains a seasoned investor, but his game has expanded from the crypto market to the grand chessboard of the global economy. He remains a creator of institutions for a new world, but he has begun to consider how this new world can better coexist and integrate with the old.

Justin Sun's story is one of how controversy can become the best protection, and how ambition can build reality. He has spent a decade proving that in the center of a storm, one can not only survive, but also build. As to whether what he is building is a beacon to the future, or a personal Tower of Babel, perhaps only time will tell.