The US Securities and Exchange Commission has settled its lawsuit against crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun with a $10 million settlement, ending a three-year legal battle against fraud and violations of securities laws.
The SEC said in a letter to a Manhattan federal court on Thursday that Rainberry, one of Sun’s companies, would pay a $10 million fine and that lawsuits against Sun and his companies, the Tron Foundation and the BitTorrent Foundation, would be dropped.
The agency said in the letter that Sun and his companies did not admit or deny the SEC’s allegations.
The SEC lawsuit, first filed in March 2023, accused Sun, Rainberry, the Tron Foundation, and the BitTorrent Foundation of selling unregistered securities through Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens and engaging in “manipulative wash trading” of TRX.
The SEC also alleged that Sun and his companies schemed to pay celebrities, including singer Akon, actress Lindsay Lohan and YouTuber Jake Paul, to promote TRX and BTT “without disclosing their compensation.”
Sun denied the allegations, arguing that the case should be dismissed because the SEC was applying US law to “predominantly foreign conduct.”
This is the latest crypto-related lawsuit the SEC has backed under the Trump administration. The agency has dismissed or settled similar cases brought under former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler against Kraken and Coinbase, among others.
Lawmakers are concerned about the Trump-Sun relationship
In November 2024, the same month that Donald Trump was elected president, Sun became the largest investor in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial, buying $30 million worth of its tokens.
He later increased his stake in Liberty World to a total of $75 million in January 2025, and a month later, the SEC and Sun asked the court to stay the case to allow settlement negotiations.
The deal comes after three congressional Democrats warned last month that the pending SEC case against Tron’s founder could undermine “investor confidence” in the financial regulator.
related to: Rep. Waters wants to hear the SEC’s oversight of its approach to crypto
Representatives Maxine Waters, Brad Sherman and Sean Kasten urged SEC Chairman Paul Atkins to consider reopening his case against Sun, citing concerns about a “pay-to-play scheme” referring to Sun’s World Liberty token purchase.
Sun said in an X post shortly after submitting his letter that the SEC’s “decision is closed” and that he looks forward to “working with the SEC to develop future guidelines and regulations for crypto.”
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