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When Justin Sun announced plans to take TRON public, it didn’t just surprise the crypto world but also caught the attention of the TradFi community. TRON is one of the oldest blockchains in the web3 ecosystem, and TRX is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency, with a $26 billion market cap. Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, has always been a larger-than-life figure, and this new move is one of his many bold initiatives to draw attention to the network.
In this article, let’s explore TRON’s plans to go public and add value to both its shareholders and token holders.
Key Takeaways:
TRON is going public through a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment.
TRON Inc. will adopt a treasury strategy using TRX to generate staking rewards and pay dividends.
TRON Inc. will replicate Strategy Inc.'s plan for a Bitcoin reserve, but using its own token, TRX.
The TRON blockchain platform was founded in 2017, and its mainnet went live in 2018. From its early days, the chain has focused on high-speed and low-cost transactions, quickly becoming one of the industry’s biggest Layer 1 blockchains. TRON can handle over 2,000 transactions per second, with transaction fees as low as $0.000005.
As of June 2025, the TRON network has the second-highest stablecoin market cap, with nearly $80 billion, second only to Ethereum and almost eight times higher than third-place Solana. When it comes to stablecoin volume, TRON’s performance is even better. According to a recent report by Artemis Analytics, TRON accounts for 60% of all stablecoin volume, followed by Ethereum at 33%.
Justin Sun is as charismatic as he is controversial. The Chinese entrepreneur dropped out of university to work for Ripple in 2013 and later founded the Peiwo APP before launching TRON in 2017. He’s known for big PR stunts, such as spending $4.6 million for lunch with Warren Buffett or paying $6.2 million for a banana and eating it live on camera. Above all else, Sun is a billionaire who managed to build TRON into a top blockchain network.
Recently, Sun has been prominently associated with Donald Trump’s crypto ventures. He poured tens of millions into Trump’s World Liberty Financial, a new DeFi platform backed by Trump’s sons. In addition, Sun has also purchased a large amount of “TRUMP” meme coins. By mid-May 2025, Sun controlled roughly $19 million worth of the TRUMP token, making him the single largest holder.
Sun has also faced investigations and scrutiny from various entities. In 2023, the SEC filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Sun and TRON, alleging that Sun orchestrated a manipulative crypto trading scheme. But it was put on hold in early 2025. Notably, court filings show Sun and the SEC jointly moved to pause the litigation shortly after Trump’s inauguration.
Sun’s closeness with Trump and the subsequent pausing of investigations after Trump gained power has also been criticized by other politicians, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
TRON plans to go public through a reverse merger with SRM Entertainment (SRM). SRM will merge with an entity aligned with TRON, changing its name to TRON Inc. This path bypasses the long process required to file for an IPO. However, the deal is still subject to regulatory approval, and TRON must comply with SEC rules and regulations, including registering the $100 million private investment in public equity (“PIPE”) using TRX tokens under the Securities Act.
SRM Entertainment is a company based in Florida that designs and manufactures plush toys, figurines and souvenirs for theme parks. Following the merger, Justin Sun is likely to join TRON Inc. as an advisor. According to a Financial Times report, the deal between SRM and TRON was facilitated by Dominari Securities, a firm that has Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump on its advisory board.
After the announcement, SRM’s penny stock surged nearly 650% from $1.45 at the end of trading on June 13 to reach a high of $10.84 on June 16.
In simple terms, the company plans to raise capital in the equities market and use it to buy crypto and add it to its treasury. It will then stake those TRX holdings in the network’s consensus system to earn rewards and share some of that upside with its shareholders as dividends.
This treasury mechanism was invented by Michael Saylor through his company, Strategy Inc. As of June 2025, the company has used its corporate balance sheet to accumulate 592,100 bitcoins at the cost of $42 billion. At the current market rate, its holdings are worth over $62 billion. This financial success has led several other companies to follow in Strategy's footsteps, as they use their treasuries to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether (ETH), SOL and, in this case, TRON.
While this move might be bold, it’s not without risks. The biggest risk is in the execution of this strategy over a long period of time. While Saylor may have successfully used this strategy using BTC, it’s worth noting that the TRX token is a far smaller asset and is not fully accepted as an investment among traditional financial institutions. Some analysts have cautioned that the gambit to use TRON’s own token as collateral is circular and risky: if TRX’s price falls, the company’s NAV falls too in a feedback loop. Contrast this with MicroStrategy holding Bitcoin, an asset that’s separate from the company.
Another risk is regulatory in nature: the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn’t spoken directly about TRON’s move, but it has sued Justin Sun in the past. While a lot has changed since then, the possibility of regulatory pushback against such deals cannot be completely dismissed.
While several web3 companies have in the past gone public, TRON is pioneering a method whereby a large crypto project that already has a token is going public with the sole aim of promoting that token. The successes of Circle and Strategy have paved the way for multiple web3 projects to enter the traditional market, and TRON has been a beneficiary. The project believes this move will benefit both its token holders and shareholders. However, its success will depend upon execution, market conditions and regulatory developments in the months ahead.
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