On Thursday, the SEC settled its case with crypto billionaire Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON crypto network. The SEC had previously sued Sun and his affiliated companies, such as BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry, over accusations of illegal distributions of crypto assets, faking trade volume, and concealing payments related to celebrity endorsements.
Specifically, Sun was accused of orchestrating a wash-trading scheme involving over 600,000 fake trades of TRX between two crypto trading accounts he controlled, which allegedly enabled him to generate $31 million in proceeds from unregistered sales of the token into the manipulated secondary market. Some of the celebrities who were allegedly paid to promote Sun’s projects without proper disclosures included Lindsey Lohan and Jake Paul.
I am very pleased to confirm that the SEC has moved to dismiss all claims against me, Tron Foundation, and BitTorrent Foundation.
Today’s resolution brings closure, but I never stopped building. I will continue to focus on accelerating innovation in the United States and around…
— H.E. Justin Sun 👨🚀 🌞 (@justinsuntron) March 5, 2026
Notably, Sun is reportedly a large holder of at least two Trump-affiliated crypto coins: World Liberty Financial’s WLFI and the TRUMP memecoin. Sun was also previously at the center of pay-to-play allegations from three Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee made against Trump’s SEC, which directly mentioned Sun’s WLFI and TRUMP holdings. The case against Sun and his companies was originally put on hold when Trump first reclaimed the presidency, as several other cases were simply dismissed around the same time.
Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren, who claimed to be raising an “anti-crypto army” a few years ago, released a statement critical of the settlement, stating, “Last month, SEC Chair Atkins denied in front of Congress that the Trump Administration is giving a free pass to crypto billionaires with ties to Donald Trump. Justin Sun poured $90 million into Trump’s crypto ventures, and today the SEC agreed to drop its case against him. The SEC should not be a lap dog for Trump’s billionaire buddies, and any crypto legislation moving through Congress must stop the President’s crypto corruption.”
As part of the settlement of the SEC case, Sun and his companies did not make any claims of wrongdoing or innocence, and a $10 million settlement will be paid by Sun’s company, Rainberry. However, the settlement still requires court approval.
Besides the obvious that this is gross:
The SEC via this settlement concluded that TRON was a securities offering. How do they distinguish TRON from all the other tokens whose lawsuits they dismissed? What about the platforms that listed TRON? Aren’t they securities exchanges? https://t.co/vSBd0e4RMn
— Amanda Fischer (@amandalfischer) March 5, 2026
Former SEC Chief of Staff Amanda Fischer took to X to claim that the settlement still leaves unanswered questions about the SEC’s crypto policy. “The SEC via this settlement concluded that TRON was a securities offering,” Fischer posted. “How do they distinguish TRON from all the other tokens whose lawsuits they dismissed? What about the platforms that listed TRON? Aren’t they securities exchanges?”
Trump previously embraced the crypto industry during his 2024 presidential campaign, and he signed pro-crypto executive orders implementing policy changes soon after he took office in January 2025. The president has also been highly supportive of pro-crypto legislation during his second term in office. The GENIUS Act created a regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States last year, and Trump would also like to see the CLARITY Act provide further clarity to the rest of the crypto industry as soon as possible. However, it’s unclear whether this second piece of crypto legislation will get across the finish line anytime soon, as banks and crypto companies are currently battling over the exact language to be included in the Senate’s version of the bill.
On top of the aforementioned pay-to-play allegations surrounding the SEC’s treatment of Sun, the Trump administration has also been accused of unprecedented corruption by a former DOJ official in terms of the pardoning of Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, as the exchange has business dealings with World Liberty Financial and its USD1 stablecoin. Additionally, a separate $500 million investment in World Liberty Financial by an investment firm tied to United Arab Emirates (UAE) National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan was referred to as “mind-blowing corruption” by Senator Chris Murphy, as a deal to allow the UAE to purchase AI chips from Nvidia was finalized some months later.
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