Justin Sun insists he never meant to sell Tron and BitTorrent to US investors
In a brazen court filing, Justin Sun swore that he never meant to advertise Tron (TRX) nor BitTorrent (BTT) coins to US investors. He claims he conducted those Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) “entirely overseas”, despite BitTorrent being an American household name and Tron being the most voluminous blockchain in the world.
BitTorrent currently has 621,000 followers on X, Tron has 1.5 million followers, Justin Sun has 3.5 million followers, and all of those accounts broadcast mostly in English. In addition, Sun paid for American celebrity sponsorships of TRX and BTT, including Austin Mahone (8.6 million followers on X) and Soulja Boy (5.3 million followers on X).
However, in Sun’s March 28 memorandum filed in the Southern District of New York, he asked a US district court judge to dismiss the SEC’s sweeping lawsuit against him and his biggest companies, Tron, BitTorrent, and Rainberry (the US part-owner of BitTorrent). Sun is also a defendant personally.
The SEC claims that Sun and his companies targeted advertisements and unregistered securities offerings at US investors. Specifically, they sold TRX and BTT tokens via celebrity endorsements, giveaways, airdrops, and other promotional events that partially targeted American media.
Soulja Boy still hasn’t bothered to delete his Tron tweets.
The lawsuit mentions various figures in the tens of millions of dollars, although the SEC has not yet quantified total damages. Typically, the SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten revenue plus fines and damages that can exceed 300% of the value of any revenue. Unsurprisingly, Sun has avoided stepping foot on US soil for years.
Read more: Justin Sun’s $28 million trip to nowhere
Sun and his lawyers counterargue that Tron and BitTorrent “promote, reward, speed, and democratize content sharing, not securities offerings.” Their 62-page Motion to Dismiss claims that neither of the tokens are unregistered securities and, most importantly, were entirely outside the SEC’s jurisdiction.
Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.