As Justin Sun’s TRON enters into a $210 million reverse merger with SRM Entertainment, Eric Trump has publicly distanced himself from Dominari Securities, the firm brokering the deal. The Trump-linked bank’s role is drawing scrutiny amid Sun’s expanding investments in crypto ventures associated with the Trump orbit.
The reported reverse merger between TRON and Florida-based SRM Entertainment marks one of the more unusual public debuts in recent crypto history: a blockchain empire going public not through a traditional IPO, but by absorbing a small-cap toy maker with licensing deals across Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld.
Structured as a private placement, the deal involves a $100 million upfront investment and warrants valuing the transaction at $210 million. As part of the agreement, SRM Entertainment will rebrand as Tron Inc., effectively giving Sun’s blockchain project a backdoor entry onto the Nasdaq.
The intrigue deepens with the players behind the scenes. Dominari Securities, the boutique investment bank arranging the offering, has well-documented ties to the Trump family.
According to a June 16 CNBC report, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump joined Dominari’s parent company’s advisory board earlier this year. Yet within hours of the report linking Dominari to the TRON-SRM deal, Eric Trump took to X to deny any “public involvement” with the firm, calling the narrative “inaccurate.”
Damage control or strategic retreat?
Eric Trump’s swift denial raises more questions than it answers. His June 16 tweet directly addressed the report tying his family to the TRON-SRM merger. But the phrasing—“I don’t have public involvement in this company”—leaves room for interpretation. What about involvement behind closed doors?
With Dominari brokering one of the year’s most controversial crypto deals, the denial reads like a strategic retreat. The optics were problematic: Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto billionaire facing an SEC fraud case that has lost momentum under the Trump administration, invests nearly $100 million into Trump-aligned crypto ventures. Then, a Trump-linked bank steps in to help him go public.
The timing is critical. Sun’s investments in Trump-backed ventures, including World Liberty Financial and the MAGA meme token, had already drawn scrutiny. Now, with Dominari at the center of the merger, the narrative risks shifting from business strategy to political patronage. Eric Trump’s denial may be a preemptive move to blunt regulatory or media backlash.
Still, in crypto markets, where perception often drives sentiment, the damage may already be done. SRM stock surged 460 percent on news of the merger. But if investors start questioning who’s really pulling the strings, that volatility could just as quickly reverse course.
