The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a proposed final judgment on Thursday to settle wash-trading claims against Rainberry, the company formerly known as BitTorrent, for a $10 million civil penalty.
As part of the resolution, the regulator dismissed all remaining charges against TRON founder Justin Sun, the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and musician DeAndre Cortez Way, known as Soulja Boy.
The settlement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, concerns Rainberry’s role in artificially inflating the trading volume of the TRX crypto asset during 2018 and 2019.
The outcome is far narrower than what the SEC originally pursued. When the commission filed suit in March 2023, the complaint targeted Sun and his companies across fraud, unregistered securities offerings, market manipulation, and celebrity-touting claims. At the time, then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the case demonstrated “the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure.”
The alleged wash-trading scheme involved over 600,000 trades between two accounts Sun controlled, according to the 2023 complaint. Between 4.5 million and 7.4 million TRX were wash traded daily, the SEC alleged, creating an appearance of market activity that did not reflect genuine demand.
The celebrity component of the case had largely been resolved before the final settlement. Six of eight celebrities charged in 2023, including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul, settled with the SEC for a combined total of roughly $400,000. Way was the last unresolved celebrity defendant. His charges have now been dismissed.
In February 2025, lawyers for both sides filed a joint letter with the court requesting a 60-day stay to explore a settlement. That request coincided with a broader shift in the SEC’s approach to crypto enforcement under the incoming Trump administration, which pledged to position the U.S. as a hub for digital assets. Sun, who had invested at least $75 million in Trump-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial, publicly credited the president for his success in cryptocurrency, Reuters reported.
The settlement shifts liability from Sun personally to Rainberry, concluding the case with a $10 million penalty and dismissal of the remaining claims.
