Eight Democrats relentlessly posed questions to SEC Chair Paul Atkins about crypto and Trump family investments during a House Financial Services Committee hearing yesterday. A key topic was the fraud case against Justin Sun, founder of the TRON blockchain. In early 2025, the SEC stayed its case against him and the TRON Foundation, including allegations of wash trading involving the TRX token.
“While you’re exploring a potential resolution, Mr Sun has been busy ingratiating himself within Trump’s orbit. He has invested over $75 million in the World Liberty Financial token and is a top holder of the $Trump meme coin,” said Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters. “Just last week a person verified to be Mr Sun’s ex girlfriend, stated publicly that she has detailed evidence that Mr Sun manipulated the price of TRX using fake trading accounts.” However, there’s a less controversial explanation for the stay outlined below, that was not directly covered in the hearing.
Representatives Carstens and Tlaib both directly raised the allegations of wash trading by Sun. “You dropped, the cases, it’s done. You said there was no fraud,” said Representative Tlaib. Chair Atkins clarified that there were two aspects to the case, only one of which was dropped, which was the need to register with the SEC. He earlier explained that the crypto registration requirements are in the process of changing with the proposed Clarity Act classifying what is or is not a security.
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