Allegations of organized market manipulation against Tron founder Justin Sun have resurfaced, this time from Chinese journalist and entrepreneur Zeng Ying (also known as Ten Ten), who claims to have been romantically involved with Sun during TRON's early days. Zeng alleges that during the late 2017 and early 2018 period, Sun instructed multiple Beijing-based employees to use their personal identities and mobile phones to register numerous accounts on the Binance exchange.
According to Zeng's detailed claims, these accounts were used to conduct coordinated buying to artificially inflate the price and market capitalization of the TRX token. Following the price pump, large-scale sell-offs were allegedly executed, dumping tokens onto retail investors and generating what she described as "enormous illegal profits." Zeng states she possesses evidence including WeChat chat records, employee testimony, and internal company documentation, and has expressed willingness to cooperate with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
These new accusations echo a prior SEC lawsuit from March 2023, which accused Sun, the Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry Inc. of the unregistered sale of TRX and BTT tokens and engaging in wash trading. The SEC alleged Sun executed over 600,000 wash trades between April 2018 and February 2019 to create artificial volume and price stability, generating approximately $31 million in illegal proceeds. That case was stayed in February 2025, a move later criticized by U.S. lawmakers who suggested the pause may have been influenced by Sun's financial ties to Trump-family-linked ventures.
Justin Sun has not directly addressed the substance of the new allegations, posting only, "Ignore the FUD and keep building & holding" on social media platform X. Neither Binance nor the SEC has issued a public comment on the claims as of February 1, 2026. The TRX token price showed a minimal reaction, trading at $0.2843, down 0.5% in the 24 hours following the reports.
