Hurun U35 List Released: Justin Sun Selected, TRON Tops Among Portfolio Companies in Value
- Core Insight: TRON founder Justin Sun was selected for the "2025 Hurun China U35 Entrepreneurship Pioneers," with his company valued at RMB 227.5 billion, accounting for 47% of the total value of all U35 startups on the list. This underscores TRON's leading position as a global blockchain infrastructure.
- Key Elements:
- The Hurun Research Institute valued TRON at RMB 227.5 billion. The average value of U35 startups on this year's list was only RMB 4.2 billion, with TRON alone accounting for nearly half of the combined value.
- Justin Sun founded TRON in 2017, focusing on stablecoin circulation, on-chain payments, and decentralized finance, aiming to achieve low-cost global fund transfers.
- The circulation of TRC20-USDT has surpassed $90 billion, representing 48% of the global USDT supply. It has over 74.9 million holding accounts and facilitated over 3.5 billion cumulative transfers.
- TRON's total number of on-chain accounts has exceeded 390 million, with over 14.6 billion cumulative transactions, continuously expanding its network effects and user base.
- Justin Sun attributes TRON's entrepreneurial success to support from real-world demand. The partnership with Tether to launch TRC20-USDT was a key decision, stating that "when the general trend is right, you have to dare to push forward."
Recently, the Hurun Research Institute released the "2025 Hurun U35 China Entrepreneurship Pioneers." Justin Sun, founder of TRON, was selected for his long-term practices in blockchain infrastructure, stablecoin payments, and globalized innovation. According to Hurun Research Institute data, the value of TRON reached RMB 227.5 billion, ranking first among the U35-founded companies on this list and accounting for nearly half of the total combined value of all listed U35 first-generation entrepreneurial ventures. This further highlights Justin Sun's representativeness among young Chinese entrepreneurs and the infrastructure-level value of TRON within the global blockchain industry.
Leading the List in Enterprise Value, Long-term Entrepreneurial Practice Earns Authoritative Recognition
The "Hurun U35 China Entrepreneurship Pioneers" list aims to identify young entrepreneurs aged 35 and under who possess both growth potential and social influence. This year, 187 individuals were selected, including 116 first-generation entrepreneurs, covering cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and digital technology. As an important part of Hurun's "U Series," past editions of the list have identified representative figures in emerging economies, such as Han Bicheng of BrainCo, Xu Bing of SenseTime, Xu Yi of Bilibili, Wang Ning of Keep, Yang Zhilin of Moonshot AI, Yan Junjie of MiniMax, and Peng Zhihui of AGIBOT.
On this year's list, Justin Sun leads the first-generation entrepreneurs with the enterprise value of TRON. The Hurun Research Institute valued TRON at RMB 227.5 billion, whereas the average value of other U35 first-generation entrepreneurial companies on the list was RMB 4.2 billion. Excluding TRON, the average value of the remaining companies drops to RMB 2.2 billion. TRON alone accounts for nearly half (47%) of the total combined value of all listed U35 first-generation ventures. This reflects its evolution over many years from a blockchain startup into a digital infrastructure with a global user base, network effects, and sustained application demand.
Justin Sun founded TRON in 2017 and has continuously driven its application in stablecoin circulation, on-chain payments, decentralized finance, and the global developer ecosystem. In a previous interview with the Hurun Report, he summarized his entrepreneurial goal as: enabling anyone in the world, regardless of their country or whether they have a bank account, to transfer and use their funds conveniently and at low cost. This vision constitutes the core logic of TRON's long-term development path.
TRC20-USDT Exceeds $90 Billion, Real Demand Builds the Value Foundation
The enterprise value of TRON is built upon continuously expanding on-chain applications and stablecoin settlement demand. Since partnering with Tether to launch TRC20-USDT in 2019, TRON has gradually become a major network for USDT issuance, transfer, and value settlement, thanks to its fast transaction speeds, low fees, and stable network operation.
The latest data shows that the circulation of TRC20-USDT on the TRON blockchain has officially surpassed $90 billion, setting a new historical record and accounting for approximately 48% of the global USDT supply. The number of holding accounts has exceeded 74.9 million, with cumulative transfers surpassing 3.5 billion. Meanwhile, the total number of accounts on the TRON network has exceeded 390 million, with cumulative transactions surpassing 14.6 billion, indicating continuously expanding global user base and network effects.
In the Hurun Report interview, Justin Sun stated that things capable of surviving market cycles must be supported by real demand. Each market correction eliminates noise and bubbles, but the continuous growth in user numbers and on-chain transactions proves that the problems solved by blockchain are real. He also considered the collaboration with Tether to launch TRC20-USDT as a key decision in TRON's development, summarizing: "When the trend is right, you must dare to push forward, but you must push with the strongest partner."
From stablecoin issuance, cross-border transfers, and peer-to-peer payments to on-chain settlements and the demand for digital dollars in emerging markets, TRON is continuously expanding the application boundaries of global value transfer. Justin Sun's inclusion in the "2025 Hurun U35 China Entrepreneurship Pioneers" not only recognizes his entrepreneurial capability, global vision, and long-term commitment but also further confirms TRON's leading position in the global Web3 ecosystem from the perspectives of enterprise value and real business scale.
