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The UK financial watchdog has filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange linked to Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who has invested millions of dollars in US President Donald Trump’s digital asset ventures.

The Financial Conduct Authority said that it had filed the lawsuit against HTX in the High Court this week “for unlawfully promoting cryptoasset services to UK consumers in breach of the UK’s financial promotions regime”. It is the first time the UK regulator has taken such action against a crypto company.

“This action is part of our commitment to protect consumers and uphold the integrity of UK financial markets,” the FCA said, without providing more details of its lawsuit.

“We have seen crypto firms react positively to our financial promotions rules and regulation, however where we still see poor practices we will not hesitate to take action where firms appear to be breaching our rules,” it said.

Sun is a well known crypto entrepreneur who has experienced brushes with law enforcement in the past. He is an adviser to HTX and runs the crypto companies BitTorrent and Tron, which has the TRX token. 

Sun spent $75mn on tokens issued by the Trump family’s crypto company World Liberty Financial shortly before a separate US lawsuit against him and three of his companies for alleged wash trading — a form of market manipulation — was paused this year.

He also flew on Jeff Bezos’ spacecraft in August and last year became infamous for buying and eating a $6mn banana as part of an art installation in Hong Kong. 

HTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The FCA has included HTX, as well as its previous incarnation Huobi, on its warning list of companies that it believes are seeking to attract UK consumers without having the necessary authorisation. 

The UK regulator requires crypto companies to register with it before they are authorised to carry out business in the country — but HTX is not among the almost 50 groups to have done so. The registration process requires checks on financial crime and anti-money laundering controls.

In 2023, Sun and his companies were sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged fraud, including for allegedly engaging in wash trading. In February, a federal court accepted the SEC’s and Sun’s request to pause the case. Sun had denied the allegations and had sought to have the case dismissed.

Sun has spent millions of dollars on buying the US president’s memecoin, becoming its top holder and securing an invite to the White House and Trump’s Virginia golf club in May. He later pledged to buy $100mn more of the memecoin. In June, World Liberty Financial began minting its token USD1 on Tron’s exchange, boosting its volumes and fees. 

Tron went public on Nasdaq this year in a reverse merger, and is buying and holding the TRX token, becoming one of hundreds of so-called crypto treasury companies. 

Additional reporting by Alistair Gray in London