Tron's Sun also wants to buy struggling Credit Suisse to turn it into "crypto-friendly" bank

Quick Take

  • Tron founder Justin Sun said Sunday that he was willing to pay $1.5 billion for the struggling bank.

Tron founder Justin Sun has an idea for the struggling financial giant Credit Suisse should UBS fail to acquire it — he wants to buy it and turn it into a "crypto-friendly" bank.

"I would like to propose my own offer of $1.5 billion to acquire Credit Suisse and integrate it into the Web3.0 world," he wrote Sunday in a thread on Twitter, praising Switzerland's crypto-friendly regulation. "We can leverage the country's progressive policies and position ourselves as a leader in financial innovation."

The Financial Times reported that UBS had agreed to buy Credit Suisse for more than $2 billion, one of the latest financial institutions to tread water after the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the U.S. earlier in the month. The bank's market capitalization was over $7 billion at the close of trading on Friday, according to TradingView data

While it wasn't clear on Twitter just how serious Sun was in his offer, or if Swiss regulators would even entertain it, he has a history of floating offers for deals that don't materialize. In January, he told Reuters that he was willing to spend up to $1 billion for assets belonging to Digital Currency Group. 

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Sun said last year that he was ready to spend up to $5 billion on struggling crypto firms. 

Spokespersons for Credit Suisse and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. 

"By acquiring Credit Suisse and transforming it into a crypto-friendly financial institution, we can create a new standard for financial innovation that benefits everyone," Sun wrote. 


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About Author

Nathan Crooks is the U.S managing editor at The Block, based in Miami. He was previously at Bloomberg News for 12 years, where he helmed coverage of South Florida after roles as a breaking news editor and bureau chief in Caracas, Venezuela. He's interviewed presidents, government ministers and CEOs, and, besides crypto, has covered major news events on the ground from earthquakes to hurricanes to the Chilean mine rescue in 2018. Nathan, a native of Clarion, Pennsylvania, holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto, where he completed a specialist in political science, and an MBA from American University in Washington, D.C.