TRON Offers Rare Apology After ’10 Billion Users’ Gaffe

In a mea culpa posted on its official Twitter account, the organization revealed that the claim that was widely circulated across social media communities was in fact a typographical error.

On Sept. 19, Tron Founder Justin Sun’s Twitter account published as a (now deleted) tweet saying “#TRON users exceeded 10B! Next goal 100B.” The incredible claim caused confusion and mirth in equal measure across the crypto community for several reasons, chief among which was that the planet’s total estimated population has yet to hit 8 billion people.

Mockery and Speculation Over Unlikely Claim

The original tweet was widely circulated and reposted across several Tron social media platforms around the world. It can still be viewed on the Tron Foundation’s Vietnamese Twitter handle, among others.

#TRON users vượt quá 10B! Mục tiêu tiếp theo 100B

TK đầu tiên tạo vào 25/6/2018, 182 ngày sau, TK thứ triệu tạo vào 24/12/2018, 625 ngày sau, TK thứ 10 triệu tạo vào 19/9/2020

Tốc độ tăng trưởng AVG đã tăng từ 3 nghìn lên 60 nghìn mỗi ngày, tăng gấp 20 lần pic.twitter.com/RVwSmfbLNA

— TRON DAO Vietnam (@TronDao_VIE) September 20, 2020

Predictably, it triggered backlash from many within the crypto ecosystem who mercilessly mocked the claim in the typical manner of social media.

https://twitter.com/CryptoWhale/status/1307376109831557122

While some speculated that the 10 billion user figure could be genuine as a result of multiple accounts, most chose to disregard the claim.

Multi-accounts?

— il Capo Of Crypto (@CryptoCapo_) September 20, 2020

Retraction and Apology

Eventually the Tron Foundation posted a thread on its handle apologizing for the misleading claim. According to Tron, the social media handler accidentally replaced an “M” with a “B” in the tweet, which led to the confusion. 

(1/7) #TRON noticed that a message was circulating today on Twitter claiming “TRON Users exceeded 10B” in English. TRON prompted an immediate investigation.

We now release the result to both #TRONICS and the public:

— TRON DAO (@trondao) September 20, 2020

The statement reads as follows:

The TRX price is currently trading lower with the broader cryptocurrency market and is down about 4%.