Justin Sun, the founder 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 claims that World Liberty Financial froze Sun's $WLFI token holdings, made false representations, and threatened and defamed him. According to the lawsuit, Sun had invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being approached by the World Liberty team in 2024, partly due to the project's connection to the Trump family. However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the USD1 stablecoin, World Liberty's leadership allegedly turned hostile towards him.
The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty induced Sun to invest through fraudulent misrepresentations about the rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens. It also claims that the company has centralized control over its tokens, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance business.
The complaint further states that World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this change to investors. This modification was allegedly used to freeze Sun's tokens, pressuring him to mint $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin and manipulating 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, to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and report him to US authorities. Sun has stated that he tried to resolve the situation amicably and seeks to be treated equally to other early investors who received tokens.