SEC, Justin Sun reach settlement over Tron lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Tron and founder Justin Sun on Thursday, the SEC said in a court filing.

Under the terms of the settlement, Rainberry Inc., one of the companies associated with the Tron network, will pay a $10 million fine and be barred from future violations of securities regulations. The SEC sued Sun and Tron in 2023, alleging violation of federal securities laws through the sale and airdropping of Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens.

Apart from the SEC's accusations that Tron was dealing in unregistered securities, the regulator had also alleged the defendants "fraudulently manipulat[ed]" TRX's secondary market through an "extensive wash trading" scheme. In the agency's rush to drop its earlier crypto registration cases, it kept pursuing those that were associated with deeper accusations.

"The remaining claims against Rainberry would be dismissed with prejudice," the filing said. "The Final Judgment would also dismiss all claims against Justin Sun, Tron Foundation, and BitTorrent Foundation."

With prejudice means the SEC would not be able to bring a similar case again in future for the same conduct.

"The Commission has reviewed and approved the terms of the settlement, as reflected in the Consent and proposed Final Judgment. Rainberry, Justin Sun, Tron Foundation, and BitTorrent Foundation have consented to entry of the Final Judgment," the filing said.

The proposed settlement is still subject to a federal judge's approval.

At the time the SEC, under the leadership of former Chair Gary Gensler, brought a number of lawsuits against crypto firms.

The SEC dropped most of these cases after President Donald Trump retook office last January, mostly under Commissioner Mark Uyeda, the acting chair. The commission is now run by Chairman Paul Atkins.

Sun bought about $75 million worth of World Liberty Financial tokens (WLFI) — the token tied to the company partially owned by Trump and his family — after Trump was reelected in 2024, and his overall ownership including unvested tokens reached nearly $700 million by mid-2025. The SEC's case against Sun was paused last year, alongside numerous other cases the agency brought against crypto firms.

Spokespeople for Tron did not return a request for comment by press time. A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment.

In a post on X, Sun said, "Today’s resolution brings closure, but I never stopped building. I will continue to focus on accelerating innovation in the United States and around the world and look forward to working with the SEC to develop guidance and regulations for crypto going forward."

UPDATE (March 5, 22:00 UTC): Adds additional context.

UPDATE (March 5, 22:47 UTC): Adds SEC declining to comment, amends Sun's WLFI token ownership.

UPDATE (March 5, 23:45 UTC): Adds Sun tweet.

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