Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has filed a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the Trump family, alleging that the company froze his $WLFI token holdings, made false representations, and threatened him. According to the lawsuit, Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being solicited by World Liberty's team in 2024, due in part 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 allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the rights of token holders and the governance of the $WLFI tokens. It also alleges that the company changed the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, which allowed 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 also raises regulatory questions, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter under US law, subjecting it to registration and anti-money laundering requirements. Other allegations in the complaint 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 wants to be treated the same as other early investors who received tokens.