protos.com
TrueUSD (TUSD) is a rapidly rising stablecoin that has seen its market cap increase from ~$950 million to ~$2.5 billion over the past three months, driven in part by Binance adopting TUSD as one of its zero-fee trading pairs.
The ownership of TrueUSD was changed in 2020 when a mysterious conglomerate referred to as ‘Techteryx’ purchased TrueUSD. The official announcement described Techteryx as an “Asia-based consortium that will be working with TRON.” The announcement on the MakerDAO forum tried to respond to claims that “TUSD’s new ownership is Justin Sun” by stating unequivocally, “no it is NOT.”
Several months later, Sun was listed as the ‘Asia Market Advisor’ to TrueUSD on its website. Sun also recently tweeted that he is a “partner market maker.” He made this claim during his attempts to explain the large transfer of TrueUSD to Binance that appeared to take advantage of an SUI promotion the exchange was running.
In statements to Protos, Archblock has repeatedly reiterated that it doesn’t have a business relationship with Sun and that he definitely doesn’t own Archblock. Protos has repeatedly reached out to Sun to clarify his relationship with TrueUSD and will update if we hear back.
What’s up with TrueUSD and the rest of TrustToken’s stablecoins?
Read more: Crypto market maker Justin Sun ‘accidentally’ takes advantage of SUI promo
Where exactly is Techteryx?
Locating Techteryx is challenging, with attestation reports for TrueUSD suggesting that Techteryx Ltd. — which is doing business as TrueUSD — is based out of Singapore. Searching Singapore’s Unique Entity Number Registry and Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for Techteryx and TrueUSD doesn’t return any results.
The announcement post on the MakerDAO forum also made clear that people don’t need to worry because, even though Techteryx made this acquisition, “the conglomerate nor anyone else affiliated with the conglomerate has control over the underlying private keys and funds.” It also added that “the same TrustToken team will continue to be involved in minting and redemptions of TUSD, for compliance and for management of the underlying reserves.”
TrustToken would later rebrand as Archblock. Monica Ho, the Director of Capital Formation for Archblock, has informed Protos that “Archblock does not control the funds, but we manage the banking and trust relations for the user on their behalf. The private keys have been handed over to the Techteryx engineering team.”
Contrary to the original announcement which claimed that the Techteryx team “has no intention nor the ability to deal with private keys or technological matters,” it appears to have been able to take over those responsibilities from the Archblock team. As such, the structure and ultimate beneficial owners of Techteryx are no more clear than they were in 2020.