SEC Settles with Tron: Lawsuit Officially Ends, Rainberry Fined $10 Million

A proposed final judgment was recently submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, announcing that all securities violation charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Justin Sun, the Tron Foundation, and the BitTorrent Foundation have been dismissed and cannot be brought again. This outcome marks the official end of a high-profile crypto regulatory case that has lasted nearly two years.

The SEC initially filed the lawsuit in March 2023, accusing Justin Sun and the three entities he controlled—the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry Inc.—of illegally raising funds through the issuance of TRX and BTT tokens without registering with the SEC, and of allegedly creating false trading volume through large-scale wash trading to mislead investors.

While Sun and the two foundations were granted full exoneration, Rainberry Inc., as the operator of the BitTorrent protocol, will bear financial responsibility. According to the judgment, Rainberry will pay a civil penalty of $10 million and will be permanently prohibited from engaging in any fraudulent promotion or misleading conduct related to the issuance of securities. The court will retain long-term regulatory authority over the company to ensure its strict compliance with the settlement terms. It is worth noting that Rainberry was deeply integrated into the Tron ecosystem after being acquired by Justin Sun in 2018, and its technological foundation supports BitTorrent's decentralized file-sharing services. Although the settlement does not involve Sun's personal liability, it further clarifies the regulatory bottom line for the compliance of crypto projects. This case was suspended in early 2025 due to multi-party negotiations and ultimately reached a compromise with partial liability and the termination of the overall lawsuit. Previously, several celebrities who had endorsed the Tron project had also reached settlements with the SEC, paying corresponding fees without admitting wrongdoing.