Bloomberg faces lawsuit for disclosing Justin Sun’s TRON token holdings

Tron founder Justin Sun has filed a lawsuit against Bloomberg, accusing the media outlet of unlawfully disclosing his private financial information in its Billionaires Index profile.

In an Aug. 11 court filing, the crypto billionaire alleged that Bloomberg intended to “recklessly and improperly” publish highly confidential and proprietary details about his crypto holdings.

He argued that the disclosure would cause “significant and irreparable” harm, both financially and personally, due to the sensitive nature of the data.

Sun said he provided Bloomberg with some information about his crypto portfolio only for verification purposes and under the condition that it would not be published without his consent.

He claimed that Bloomberg’s planned report went far beyond the standard data typically included in the Billionaires Index and directly contradicted assurances given to him.

According to him, Bloomberg’s publication would provide everyone, including bad actors, with
vital information to identify his crypto wallets. This action, Sun argued, would constitute an invasion of his privacy and also subject him and his family “to a significant and imminent risk of theft, hacking, kidnapping, and bodily harm.”

Sun’s legal team added:

“Given his significant crypto holdings, once Plaintiff’s wallet numbers are known, Plaintiff will become a considerable target for bad actors who can use the information to determine the methods to carry out an attack, which may include a variety of tools to steal, extort, and attack Plaintiff.”

This case adds to Bloomberg’s history of disputes with prominent crypto industry figures. In a separate matter, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao previously threatened to sue the outlet, alleging it published false and damaging reports about him and his company.

Bloomberg’s response

In an Aug. 12 letter to Judge Maryellen Noreika, Bloomberg stated that it will challenge the lawsuit and the temporary restraining order (TRO) that Sun requested.

The outlet argued the TRO was irrelevant because the article had already been published before it received a cease-and-desist letter from Sun’s legal team. Bloomberg further claimed that blocking publication would infringe on its First Amendment rights.

In its report, Bloomberg estimated Sun’s net worth to be $12.4 billion, with most of his wealth tied to digital assets.

The traditional media outlet stated that Sun owned more than 60 billion TRX tokens, which equates to roughly 63% of the token’s total supply. In addition, Bloomberg noted that Sun owned 17,000 Bitcoin, 224,000 Ethereum, and 700,000 Tether USD (USDT).

Bloomberg pointed out that its analysis covered only verifiable on-chain holdings and excluded assets on exchanges like HTX and Binance.