Key Takeaways
- A woman claiming to be Justin Sun’s former girlfriend alleges he manipulated TRX prices on Binance in 2017–2018 using employee-linked accounts.
- The accuser says she is willing to cooperate with a U.S. SEC investigation.
- Justin Sun and Binance have not publicly responded to the claims.
Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain and one of the crypto industry’s most high-profile entrepreneurs, is facing allegations of market manipulation after a woman claiming to be his former girlfriend accused him of orchestrating a “pump and dump” scheme involving the TRX token on the Binance exchange.
The allegations were made in a series of posts on X, in which the woman said she possessed evidence that Sun used employee identities to operate multiple Binance accounts to artificially inflate the price of TRX before selling large positions to retail investors.
Sun did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Allegations Of Justin Sun Coordinated Trading
In her initial post, the woman said she had been romantically involved with Sun during the early days of the Tron project and claimed to have firsthand knowledge of alleged trading practices.
“I was Justin’s girlfriend during the early stages of his entrepreneurship with TRX,” she wrote.
“I am in possession of evidence showing that he used the identities and mobile phones of multiple employees to register numerous Binance accounts, through which he conducted coordinated buying and selling on the Binance exchange to artificially inflate the price of TRX, followed by large-scale selling to dump on retail investors, thereby obtaining enormous illegal profits.”
She added that she was prepared to cooperate with regulators.
“I am willing to fully cooperate with an SEC investigation and to submit all relevant WeChat chat records, as well as evidence provided to me by his employees, proving his market manipulation activities,” she said.
“I request that the U.S. judicial authorities contact me, and I respectfully ask that this information be forwarded as widely as possible.”
In a follow-up post, she said the accusations were supported by extensive documentation.
“I am not making empty accusations. I have a substantial amount of evidence, and what has been disclosed so far is only a very small portion of it,” she wrote.
She alleged that the activity occurred during the 2017–2018 crypto boom.
“Justin Sun used the identities of multiple employees based in Beijing to operate accounts on the Binance exchange, through which he manipulated the market capitalization of TRX,” she said.
“At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, he carried out aggressive and large-scale cash-outs.”
“The insider trading and predatory practices involving TRX on the Binance exchange are the source of his wealth,” she added.
She named several individuals she said were involved, including a senior employee she identified as coordinating the process.
“He appointed Wang Bingyu, the company’s chief steward, to coordinate with employees,” she wrote, adding that “Zhang Ying, Yang Kaishan, and Yu Dafei were responsible for selling the project’s issued virtual assets through these exchange accounts.”
She said she had redacted sensitive personal information but was prepared to provide it to authorities.
“For security reasons, all specific account credentials, passwords, ID numbers, phone numbers, and security question answers have been redacted and can be provided through secure channels upon lawful request by regulatory or investigative authorities,” she wrote.
Binance has denied any ties to the allegations.
In an emailed statement to CCN, Binance said: “Binance is not involved in the matters described in these allegations. We take platform integrity seriously and have robust compliance and monitoring systems in place.
“We do not comment on individual user accounts due to privacy obligations, but we encourage anyone with evidence of wrongdoing to report it through proper channels.”
Personal Motives and Political Accusations
In later posts, the woman said her decision to go public was driven by personal grievances stemming from the end of their relationship.
“The reason I exposed him is that I devoted my own future to his career,” she wrote.
“The man who once promised to marry me later, at a recent public event, openly boasted to CZ that he was dating a well-known athlete.”
She claimed Justin Sun later told others he was in a relationship with Chinese-American skier Eileen Gu, though Gu has not publicly commented on the matter.
“The way he handled our breakup was brutal and cruel, utterly devoid of any human decency,” she wrote.
The posts also included broader accusations about Sun’s wealth and political connections.
“He is immensely wealthy, and I may very well pay a heavy personal price for speaking out,” she said. “Yet I watched as a man who built his fortune by ruthlessly exploiting retail investors and laundering money for illicit networks transformed himself into a tycoon.”
She went on to allege that Sun had sought political protection in the United States, but did not provide evidence.
“He could invest in the digital currency projects of a U.S. presidential figure in exchange for his own protection,” she wrote, before directly addressing members of the Trump family and questioning whether political influence had shielded Sun from scrutiny.
“With this resolve, I decided to report everything to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),” she said.
Claims of Smear Campaigns
In additional posts, the woman alleged that Sun responded to her accusations by orchestrating a smear campaign through influential Chinese-language crypto commentators.
She described what she said was a broader system in the Chinese crypto market in which anonymous social media accounts work closely with token issuers.
“A significant portion of KOLs in the Chinese crypto space are, in fact, anonymous ‘signal-calling’ accounts,” she wrote.
“They work closely with project teams to release so-called ‘calls’ when a price pump is nearing its end.”
According to her account, such posts encourage retail investors to buy shortly before project teams sell their holdings.
“Once these calls are issued, large numbers of retail investors buy in, after which the project teams begin dumping and harvesting profits,” she said.
She alleged that many projects founded by Chinese entrepreneurs operate under similar arrangements.
“These KOLs typically sign annual framework agreements and non-disclosure agreements with project teams, with fees ranging from 100 USDT to 20,000 USDT per post or collaboration,” she wrote.
When founders face public scrutiny, she said, those same accounts are used to discredit critics.
“When a project or its founder encounters a public relations crisis, these KOLs hide behind anonymous accounts to smear, discredit, and frame those who speak out,” she wrote.
“Meanwhile, countless retail investors are driven into bankruptcy, left with nowhere to seek help, and subjected to further humiliation on top of their financial losses,” she added.
“Retail investors—the most vulnerable participants in this system—are completely excluded, left isolated as the primary targets of deception and exploitation.”
Sun’s Wealth Allegations
The woman also reiterated her claims about the origins of Sun’s fortune, rejecting public narratives portraying him as a visionary entrepreneur.
“Many people are curious about how he was able, in early 2018, to transform himself from an unknown entrepreneur into a centibillion-level billionaire,” she wrote.
“In reality, however, the entirety of his wealth originated from harvesting the cryptocurrencies he himself issued,” she said.
She alleged that media promotion and marketing were used to draw retail investors into buying tokens created by Sun and his companies.
“Through media hype and publicity, he increased his visibility and attracted attention, drawing more retail investors to spend real money buying the digital assets he issued,” she wrote.
She further claimed that some projects collaborated with outside capital pools to inflate token prices.
“In many cases, project teams even collaborated with capital pools and Ponzi-style operations to artificially drive up token prices, jointly harvesting retail investors and then splitting the profits,” she said.
SEC Allegations
While the latest claims have not been independently verified, they bear similarities to allegations previously brought by U.S. regulators against Sun and companies linked to him.
In March 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil lawsuit against Sun.
The financial watchdog accused them of offering and selling crypto tokens without proper registration and engaging in market manipulation.
In that case, the SEC alleged that Sun directed extensive trading activity designed to give the appearance of active and orderly markets for TRX and BitTorrent Token (BTT), despite little genuine change in ownership.
The regulator said Sun used accounts under his control or influence to conduct large volumes of trades.
Sun was also accused of arranging promotional campaigns that were not properly disclosed. This includes payments to public figures to promote the tokens on social media.
The regulator’s complaint did not specifically allege the use of employee identities or reference Binance accounts.
However, the core conduct described by the SEC resembles elements of the claims now circulating on social media.
The SEC case was stayed in February 2025, according to court records. Sun has previously denied wrongdoing in connection with the SEC’s lawsuit.
Who is Justin Sun?
Justin Sun is a Chinese-born entrepreneur best known as the founder of Tron.
The TRX token quickly became one of the most heavily traded cryptocurrencies during the 2017 bull market.
Sun has cultivated a high-profile public persona, frequently appearing on social media and at industry events.
He is known for headline-grabbing stunts, including paying $4.6 million to attend a charity lunch with investor Warren Buffett in 2019, buying a $6 million banana art piece, and flying aboard a Blue Origin spaceflight.
Sun also faced fresh scrutiny after his firm invested $30 million into Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial.
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