Justin Sun, the creator of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the family of former US President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, claims that World Liberty unfairly locked up Sun's $WLFI holdings, made false representations, and threatened and defamed him.
According to the lawsuit, Sun had invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being solicited by the World Liberty team in 2024, partly due to the project's association with the Trump family. However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin, the company's principals allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the economic rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about token holder rights and 'freedom to transact.' It is also claimed that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance business, exercised centralized control over its tokens. The company allegedly modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing it to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this to investors.
The lawsuit argues that this modification was used to pressure Sun into minting $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens. Furthermore, the complaint alleges that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may raise regulatory questions and potentially qualify the firm as a money transmitter under US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules. Other allegations include threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and to report him to US authorities.
Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks to be treated equally to other early investors who received tokens.