SEC Settles TRON Lawsuit With Justin Sun; Rainberry to Pay $10 Million Penalty

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued TRON founder Justin Sun and affiliated companies in March 2023, alleging that TRX and BTT were offered without registration and that wash trading was used to manipulate TRX trading volumes. The case, which centered on whether existing securities laws apply to crypto assets, was closely watched as an indicator of the direction of U.S. regulatory enforcement.

The SEC and Sun and his co-defendants proposed a settlement on March 5, 2026. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment on March 9, ordering BitTorrent developer Rainberry to pay a $10 million civil penalty and dismissing the claims against Sun. The OCC, Federal Reserve and FDIC also issued guidance on March 5 stating that tokenized securities carrying the same legal rights as traditional securities are subject to the same bank capital requirements.