Justin Sun Calls Out Coinbase on Alleged $80M TRX Listing Fee

TRON founder Justin Sun has also disputed Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s assertion that the exchange offers free asset listing. Sun says Coinbase requested a fee of 500 million TRX, or about $80 million, for listing TRON’s native token.

He also accused Coinbase of requesting an additional $250 million worth of Bitcoin pledged to Coinbase Custody to raise the platform’s liquidity levels.

Armstrong was directly challenged by Sun. He said Coinbase’s stance on not charging for token listings didn’t align with the request.

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He also pointed out that one of Coinbase’s biggest competitors—Binance—listed its native coin, TRON, without charging listing fees. That claim drew further weight into the debate regarding transparency in the listing practices among large exchanges.

In response, Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje joined in. He revealed that Coinbase had approached his teams with listing fees as high as $300 million.

Cronje and Simon Dedic, CEO of Moonrock Capital, raised similar concerns about Binance’s practices. According to Dedic, Binance asked for 15% of project tokens. This potentially destabilized project liquidity and created volatility in a new project’s growth.

Coinbase Denies Charging Fees for Token Listings

Although they have been accused, Armstrong said Coinbase does not charge any fees for token listings. Coinbase has positioned itself as a free exchange to some, an alternative to other exchanges. They reiterated that ‘fees-free listings’ remain a commitment.

However, former Coinbase engineer Luke Youngblood dismissed the allegations, saying Sun and Cronje could’ve been duped by scammers. Scammers pose as Coinbase employees, a common occurrence in the crypto world.

Youngblood insisted that this has been Coinbase’s way: listings have never been charged for, he asserted.

Where debates over transparency continue in crypto asset listings, these remarks highlight the competitive and regulatory pressures exchanges face. Sun, Cronje, and Youngblood’s statements have served to spark further debates about security, authenticity, and fees within the crypto space.

On the other hand, since the crypto industry grew consistently through 2018 and 2019, the job market may be returning to normal following the disruption in 2022.

Coinbase revealed last week that it ended the third quarter of 2019 with its largest workforce size in over two years, sitting at 3,672 full-time employees. This surge also shows a new level of faith in the crypto sector’s resilience following a segment of massive layoffs throughout the marketplace.

Justin Sun Fights Back Against SEC Allegations

Sun’s accusations against Coinbase are just another in a growing number of legal challenges against him from the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). A recent setback for the SEC came when a New York District Judge denied its attempt to restrict Sun’s legal defense in its case against him.

According to the SEC, Sun and his companies have engaged in unregistered securities offerings, manipulative trading, and the illegal promotion of such assets through Coinomi TRON and BitTorrent tokens.

Sun’s legal team has fought back against jurisdiction by the SEC, suggesting the commission lacks power over international digital transactions taken on foreign trading platforms.

In the updated April complaint, the SEC alleges Sun three times jetted for work with the TRON Foundation, among other TRON connections. This case highlights the regulatory challenges that foreign crypto firms still face in the U.S. as regulators try to influence what happens with global digital assets.