Elon Musk The Next 'Bad Boy' Of Crypto? At Least 'Incumbent' Justin Sun Thinks So

Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun said Tuesday that Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk may be the next in line to receive the "bad boy" title of the cryptocurrency world.

What Happened: Sun said in response to questions at CoinDesk’s annual conference “Consensus 2021” that he is grateful for “Elon Musk bringing a lot of people into crypto, bringing all the media and the big companies attention to crypto.”

When asked if he was still considered a “bad boy” by the cryptocurrency community, Sun was ready to pass on the label to Musk and said he was amused by a meme that declared, “Elon Musk Is Going to Be the Next Justin Sun.”

Sun noted, “Every celebrity, when they get into crypto, will become controversial.”

“This is inevitable. The only difference I think here is how we use this kind of influence or controversy to bring crypto to mass adoption.”

TRX traded 6.75% higher at $0.08 at press time. The cryptocurrency was up 2.19% against Bitcoin (BTC) and down 1.83% against Ethereum (ETH) at press time over a 24-hour period. 

BTC traded 4.28% higher at $40,654.94, while ETH traded 8% higher at $2,878.06 at press time

Why It Matters: Sun has been in controversy over human resources practices at Tron Foundation, his canceled $4.6 million charity lunch with Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-A) CEO Warren Buffett, and his rocky relationship with the Chinese government — which had reportedly imposed a travel ban on him due to suspicions of illegal financial dealings, reported CoinDesk separately.

Musk on the other hand is known to be an adherent of Dogecoin (DOGE) and has recently been in controversy after Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin payments, citing the environmental impact of the coin, leading eventually to a cryptocurrency market crash.

See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

However, Musk said on Tuesday that he isn’t the CEO of DOGE and his ability to “take action is limited” on the development of the cryptocurrency.

The Tesla CEO also met with Bitcoin miners this week. The meeting resulted in the announcement of a “Bitcoin Mining Council” whose mandate is to promote energy use transparency.

The announcement of the mining council has evoked the ire of some on Bitcoin forums, with one poster terming it “a ploy to centralize authority over the cryptocurrency by billionaires all along.”

Read Next: Elon Musk's Starlink Can Help Scale Up Dogecoin Without Protocol Changes, Proposes Researcher

Photo by Heisenberg Media on Flickr