TRON rallies 9% after FT report on US listing via reverse merger

On June 16, TRON’s token (TRX) jumped from ~$0.27 to ~$0.30, up about 9%. After a pullback, it returned to levels near $0.28.

The sharp move followed an FT report on plans for the Justin Sun-founded blockchain project to list in the US. According to the paper, a firm affiliated with the entrepreneur, Tron, would go public via a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment.

The deal is being arranged by boutique investment bank Dominari Securities, which is linked to the US president’s sons: Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump.

The new enterprise would buy and hold TRON tokens, mirroring Michael Saylor’s Strategy. FT’s sources said Tron committed to invest $210 million in digital assets into the newly created company.

In a press release, SRM Entertainment did not confirm a possible merger. The firm said it had reached an agreement with an unnamed “private investor” to buy 100,000 shares worth $100 million. The funding will be used to build a corporate TRX treasury.

Sun became a strategic adviser to SRM. The company also announced it would change its name to Tron.

SRM will also issue warrants for 220 million shares at a $0.50 strike, which could lift the total amount raised to $210 million — matching FT’s figure.

Dominari Securities will act as the exclusive placement agent.

SRM shares surged more than 500% after the open. Following the initial frenzy, the price retraced. At the time of writing, the stock was up ~440% from the session’s start. The company’s market capitalisation stands at $156.4 million.

Sun, the US and the Trumps

In March 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Sun and three affiliated companies of conducting an unregistered securities offering in the form of TRON and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens.

The regulator also alleged that the entrepreneur, TRON Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry manipulated the TRX secondary market via “wash trading”.

Sun’s representatives sought to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the China-born founder is not a US citizen. The SEC cited its right to pursue legal action against the TRON founder because he frequently visited the United States.

In November 2024, Sun bought 2bn WLFI tokens of the crypto platform linked to the family of the newly elected US president, World Liberty Financial for $30 million, making him the project’s largest investor.

In May 2025, the entrepreneur, together with 24 other top holders of the TRUMP memecoin, attended a dinner with Donald Trump at the Trump National golf club in Virginia, according to FT.

Sun’s exchange HTX added support for the USD1 stablecoin from World Liberty, and in early June the asset launched on the TRON blockchain.

Back in February, Sun and the SEC filed a motion in court to pause the proceedings in search of a settlement. After Donald Trump entered the White House, the regulator ended actions against several crypto companies, including Coinbase, Robinhood, Ripple, Kraken, ConsenSys, Cumberland, Nova Labs and Uniswap.

The Commission is already reviewing an application to register a spot TRX exchange-traded fund with staking from Canary Capital.

Earlier, VanEck’s head of digital assets, Matthew Sigel, called fraudulent statements by small-cap companies about forming crypto reserves worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Coinbase Institutional analysts considered the trend of copying Strategy’s approach a systemic risk for the industry.