The US Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Tron and founder Justin Sun on Thursday, the SEC said in a filing.
Under the settlement, Rainberry Inc., one of the companies affiliated 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 violations of federal securities laws through the sale and airdropping of Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens. The agency also alleged market manipulation of the TRX secondary market through an “extensive wash trading” scheme.
“The remaining claims against Rainberry would be dismissed with prejudice,” the suit states. “The final judgment would also dismiss all claims against Justin Sun, the Tron Foundation and the BitTorrent Foundation.”
With prejudice, the SEC will not be able to bring a similar case again in the future for the same conduct.
“The Commission has reviewed and approved the terms of the settlement as reflected in the Consent and the Proposed Final Judgment. Rainberry, Justin Sun, the Tron Foundation and the BitTorrent Foundation have consented to the Final Judgment,” the suit states.
The proposed settlement is still subject to a federal judge’s approval.
At the time, the SEC, led by former chairman Gary Gensler, filed a series of lawsuits against crypto firms.
The SEC dropped most of those cases after President Donald Trump took office last January, mostly under Commissioner Mark Uyeda, the acting chairman. The Commission is now chaired by Chairman Paul Atkins.
Sun bought about $80 million worth of World Liberty Financial tokens (WLFI) — the token tied to the company partially owned by Trump and his family — after Trump was re-elected in 2024. The SEC’s case against Sun was put on hold last year, along with several other cases the agency brought against crypto firms.
Spokesmen for the SEC and Tron did not immediately return a request for comment.
UPDATE (March 5, 22:00 UTC): Adds additional context.
