Author: George Steer, Philip Stafford Source: Financial Times Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance
Crypto billionaire Justin Sun’s digital asset platform Tron is to be listed in the United States after US regulators suspended a fraud investigation into several of his companies.
Tron will be listed through a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment, according to people familiar with the matter. The transaction is being handled by Dominari Securities, a boutique investment bank based in New York with close ties to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
The new company will adopt a model similar to Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) to buy and hold Tron tokens, one of the people said. Strategy founder Michael Saylor transformed his company into a highly leveraged Bitcoin investment vehicle. Eric Trump will serve as an executive in the new company, Tron Inc, according to reports.
The deal also includes Tron injecting up to $210 million in token assets into the new company, the latest in a surge of transactions in the U.S. crypto industry since Trump's second term as president.
In 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against Justin Sun and his three companies (including Tron) on suspicion of issuing unregistered securities and manipulating the market.
However, as Trump expressed his hope to adopt a more "relaxed" regulatory strategy for the encryption industry during his second term, the SEC and Justin Sun jointly applied to the court in February this year to suspend the lawsuit to explore the possibility of a settlement.
Since then, Sun Yuchen has continued to strengthen his relationship with the Trump family. In May of this year, he attended a banquet hosted by Trump at the Virginia National Golf Club along with the other 24 largest $TRUMP (Trump Stalk Coin) holders.
In addition, Sun also invested $75 million in the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty Financial. The company has brought Trump $57 million in revenue. Last week, World Liberty also issued the first batch of stablecoins (digital dollars) on the Tron blockchain founded by Sun Yuchen.
Sun Yuchen has long been regarded as one of the most controversial figures in the crypto industry, and has frequently made headlines for his high-profile behavior. In 2019, he spent $4.6 million to win the charity auction for lunch with Warren Buffett. In 2023, he bought a "banana stuck to the wall" artwork for $6.2 million and ate it in public, causing a sensation.
Sun Yuchen was born in China and is now a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis. He has served as Grenada's permanent representative to the World Trade Organization.
Dominari Securities, which led the Tron listing, is headquartered in Trump Tower, two floors below the Trump Organization's offices.
As previously reported by the Financial Times, after the bank filed documents on February 11 to disclose that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump joined the advisory board, its parent company Dominari Holdings' stock price soared 580% in six weeks.
Dominari also owns a crypto mining company, American Bitcoin, which cooperated with the well-known miner Hut 8 to develop Bitcoin mines and strategic reserve warehouses. It was formerly known as American Data Centers and completed its reorganization in March this year.
In addition, Dominari has also raised millions of dollars for several private companies under Elon Musk (such as SpaceX and xAI).
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