SEC Drops Lawsuit Against Justin Sun, Rainberry to Pay $10 Million Civil Penalty

On Thursday, March 6, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a final judgment, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its 2023 charges against Tron founder Justin Sun, the Tron Foundation, and the BitTorrent Foundation. Previously, companies tied to Sun—including Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent Inc.), which developed the BitTorrent protocol and the BTT crypto token—were ordered to pay a $10 million civil penalty to the SEC. The regulator also accused Sun and three affiliated firms of selling unregistered securities via TRX and BTT tokens. Under the settlement agreement, the SEC will dismiss all charges against Sun. Rainberry, without admitting or denying the allegations, has agreed to pay the $10 million penalty. The agreement is subject to court approval. Sun posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he is “very pleased” with the SEC’s withdrawal of the lawsuit. Since Trump returned to the White House, the SEC has dropped or suspended at least a dozen cases against crypto firms, including previously filed lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance.