American lawmakers have reached out to the leadership of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with a request concerning the actions of TRON founder Justin Sun and potential risks to the cryptocurrency market associated with his investments and contacts with President Donald Trump’s family.
This is reported by Business • Media
Official Congressional Request to the SEC
On September 17, 2025, House Representative Sean Casten and Senator Jeffrey Merkley sent an official letter to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and the Acting Director of the Division of Corporation Finance. The document states that Justin Sun has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice since 2021, and in 2023, the SEC filed a fraud lawsuit against him related to the cryptocurrency TRX. Additionally, the financial regulator FinCEN reported that criminal organizations used the TRON blockchain for illegal financial operations. The authors of the letter emphasize that Sun avoids traveling to the U.S. due to the threat of arrest.
“The politicians added that after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 elections, Sun became the largest investor in the DeFi project World Liberty Financial, linked to the president’s family. According to the authors of the letter, he invested at least $75 million in WLFI, which brought Trump about $400 million in profit. Furthermore, Sun supported the meme coin TRUMP.”
According to the official letter, after these investments, the SEC, now under the new administration, dropped the lawsuit against Sun, which, in the opinion of the congress members, may indicate a potential conflict of interest.
Possible Manipulations and Market Risks
Since September 2025, the WLFI token has started trading on leading cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken. This, according to the calculations of the congress members, has increased Donald Trump’s wealth by an additional $5 billion. The politicians emphasize that Sun’s involvement as one of the key investors creates a potential threat of price manipulation of the token, which could lead to financial losses among retail investors.
In their appeal to the SEC, lawmakers demand responses by October 2, 2025, to the following questions:
- whether there were any contacts between the SEC, the White House, or members of the Trump family regarding Sun’s case;
- whether there was direct communication with Sun himself before the lawsuit was dropped;
- how many complaints have been received regarding Justin Sun’s activities and how they were processed;
- whether the SEC is considering a ban on TRON in the U.S.;
- other questions regarding market transparency and oversight.
Additionally, earlier, Arkham experts reported that the World Liberty Financial platform blacklisted Justin Sun’s Ethereum address after suspicions arose regarding a transfer of WLFI tokens amounting to $9 million.