Justin Sun, founder of blockchain platform Tron, poses for a photograph in Hong Kong, May 8, 2020.
Calvin Sit | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Justin Sun’s crypto company Tron is set to hit the public market through a reverse merger with a manufacturer of custom toys and souvenirs for the world’s biggest theme parks.
SRM Entertainment, a Nasdaq-listed merchandise supplier that has licensing deals with Disney, Universal Studios (owned by CNBC parent NBC Universal) and SeaWorld, said on Monday that it will raise $100 million from a private investor to buy TRON tokens, and will issue preferred shares and warrants that value the deal at up to $210 million.
SRM said it plans to rebrand as Tron Inc., with Sun joining as an advisor. Shares of SRM soared 460% after the announcement, lifting the company’s market cap to about $140 million.
For Sun, who was previously charged with securities fraud by the SEC, the announcement is the latest boon in what has been a dramatic reversal of fortunes since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term.
A court filing in February showed that Sun and the SEC were exploring a resolution to the civil fraud case, as part of the Trump administration’s unwinding of enforcement actions taken during President Joe Biden’s four years in office.
That filing came after Sun, in January, upped his stake in tokens issued by the Trump family’s crypto bank World Liberty Financial to $75 million. Sun, who was born in China, later purchased the president’s meme token, winning a contest for top holders, and raising his stake in Trump-tied tokens to at least $97 million.
SRM’s offering was arranged by Dominari Securities, a boutique investment bank whose parent company has recently drawn attention for its ties to the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump joined Dominari Holdings’ advisory board earlier this year, shortly before the firm’s share price surged.
SRM said it will stake the TRON token, distribute dividends, and build long-term shareholder value through digital asset exposure, mimicking a bitcoin-buying tactic that Michael Saylor has popularized at Strategy.
TRON is a blockchain network that’s considered a rival to Solana. It claims to offer low transaction fees with the ability to process a large number of transactions per second, and is intended to move stablecoins and other digital assets.
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