——From the shores of Yunqi Lake to the crypto empire, how a new generation of entrepreneurs conquers world authority

In March 2025, Justin Sun appeared on the cover of the English version of Forbes, with the title saying "The crypto billionaire who helped the Trump family earn $400 million." This is the second entrepreneur after Jack Ma to appear on the cover of Forbes' English version, and the fourth largest exchange leader in the world to receive this honor - only Binance Zhao Changpeng (CZ), FTX Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Coinbase Brian Armstrong appeared in this position.

When Forbes' cover turns from Jack Ma of "West Lake Sword Contest" to Justin Sun of "crypto sermon", a metaphor about the intergenerational change of commercial power is emerging: traditional Internet giants give way to crypto upstarts, and entrepreneurs transform from "followers" to "rule makers."

Forbes Cover Password: Who is defining the business benchmark of the new era?

The choice of the character on the cover of Forbes is never accidental. From Bill Gates to Elon Musk, from Jack Ma to Justin Sun, two iron laws are always followed: "quantitative business dominance" and "irreplaceable rule definition rights".

In the traditional business era, Jack Ma became the first entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes' English version with Alibaba's GMV myth and the vision of "making business that is difficult to do in the world". The logic of selection at that time was clear and single: whoever could represent the explosive growth of the market would get the spotlight of the world media.

In the crypto era, Forbes' value coordinates are shifting. When Justin Sun, Tron TRON and Huobi HTX appeared on the cover, the judges focused not only on the transaction volume or number of users, but also on the possibility of "technology reconstructing the global financial order."

Yuchen Sun's "three-pole advantages": technology, capital and brand power

1. Technology infrastructure: the invisible overlord of the global payment chain

"" "More than half of USDTs were issued on TRON because the fees for TRON's transactions were much cheaper," Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino once commented on TRON in a news interview.

According to the latest data of TRON chain, its total on-chain lock value (TVL) has exceeded US$19.7 billion, its user size is close to 300 million, and its USDT flow exceeds 66.6 billion. It processes more than 14 million USDT transactions per week, accounting for more than half of the global USDT activities. This means that tens of millions of users are using the payment network built by Justin Sun without any sense.

2. Business Breaking the Circle: When encryption meets traditional power

In 2024, Justin Sun has added a new identity and became the Trump family's cryptocurrency project WLFI (World Liberty Financial) consultant and invested $75 million in WLFI, becoming the largest investor in the project. All kinds of cooperation demonstrated the textbook-level "resource monetization": cryptocurrencies became the fundraising tool and public opinion position for the first time in the US election year.

"This proves that crypto assets are no longer geek toys, but strategic weapons that can leverage real power. "Forbes wrote in the cover report.

3. Brand power construction: Huobi HTX's counter-trend growth

At the darkest moment when the FTX burst triggered the industry's trust crisis, the Huobi HTX, which Sun took over, completed an "extreme transformation":

Security card: As of March 2025, more than 100% reserve certificates have been released for 29 consecutive months, promoting the normalization of "security monthly reports"; creating a million-level black address database, an anti-month laundering information database that cooperates with authoritative institutions, thousands of real-time rules and nearly 100 risk models to prevent the inflow of suspicious assets and the loss of user funds;

Wealth Card: 47 new assets were launched in Q1, covering many popular tracks such as Meme, AI, and public chains. The popular token $TRUMP rose by more than 400% in a single day; the first Launchpool event attracted more than 150,000 users to participate;

Eco Card: HTX DAO governance token $HTX holds nearly 760,000 users, and the daily trading volume of Tron Eco Trading Competition exceeded US$14 million.

According to the industry report released by CoinDesk Data on February 27, Huobi HTX achieved remarkable results in its global layout and successfully entered the euro stablecoin tradingThe top three in the world, and the competitiveness of the international market continues to increase. At the same time, Huobi HTX was successfully selected as the "25 most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in 2025".

The ecological pattern behind the cover: What kind of business leaders are needed?

In 2015 when Jack Ma appeared on Forbes' cover, Internet companies were still working hard to justify the "Copy to China" model; and today, Justin Sun and others are practicing the global ambition of "Copy from China".

The deep driving force of this transformation comes from the hidden resonance between the crypto industry and the business gene:

Technology applicationism: Compared with the West's persistence in "decentralized fundamentalism", Justin Sun is better at embedding blockchain technology into actual needs. Whether it is the compliance cooperation between TRON Chain and Huawei Cloud, or the "strict selection of coins" strategy of Huobi HTX, it all demonstrates a typical practical philosophy.

Scale combat: From Tron TRON launching the $10 million Meme ecological incentive plan to HTX DAO's innovative decentralized governance model, Justin Sun is well aware of the Web 3.0 concept of "community is the core and users are the cornerstone".

Game Wisdom: When the US exchanges shrink its front due to regulatory pressure, Justin Sun established a base in the Eurasian market by being elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Liberland and applying for a multi-country compliance license.

Just Sun is only 35 years old when he appears on Forbes' global cover, and everything has just begun. As a young leader in the crypto industry, it not only represents the broad development potential in the crypto field, but also has the curiosity and expectations of mainstream society for encryption. Justin Sun once said in the live broadcast, "We can prove to the outside world that the crypto industry can represent the image and interests of Chinese people internationally." He proved that Chinese entrepreneurs can still have the right to speak in the industry without relying on the local market.

When the cover becomes a new starting point: The Encoder of New Rules

The true meaning of Forbes cover may be in the fact that it unveils a new script for entrepreneurs' globalization:

The Jack Ma era: Relying on the dividends of the local market, exporting the "manufacturing" business model to the world;

Yu Chen Sun era: Bypassing geographical barriers and usingCryptotechnology builds a business empire that is "born and grown up with globalization".

Yu Chen Sun's challenge has just begun - he needs to prove that the crypto empire is not a flash in the pan capital game, but a next-generation infrastructure that is comparable to Alibaba and Tencent. As Justin Sun said in the live broadcast, "This is indeed a milestone progress, but it is just a beginning."

At this moment, we may be witnessing history: when the entrepreneurial legend on the banks of West Lake gradually fades away, a new generation of entrepreneurs have written the prelude to the new order across the ocean.