Tron founder Justin Sun has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the family of former US President Donald Trump, alleging that the company unfairly froze his $WLFI token holdings and made fraudulent claims. According to the lawsuit, World Liberty's leadership engaged in an illegal scheme to seize Sun's tokens, which he had purchased after being solicited by the company in 2024.
The lawsuit states that Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens due to the project's claims of promoting decentralized finance and its association with the Trump family. However, when Sun refused to continue investing in 2025, World Liberty's principals became hostile towards him. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the rights of token holders and the governance of the $WLFI tokens. It also claims that the company changed 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 complaint argues that World Liberty's actions served to pressure Sun into minting $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens. The lawsuit raises regulatory questions, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter, subject to registration and anti-money laundering requirements. Other allegations include threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, against Sun and his businesses. Sun has stated that he tried to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks to be treated the same as other early investors who received tokens.