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 tokens and made fraudulent misrepresentations. According to the lawsuit, Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being solicited by the World Liberty team in 2024, but the company's leadership later became hostile when he refused to continue investing. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty induced Sun to invest through false statements about the rights of token holders and the governance of the project. 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.
Sun's suit further claims that World Liberty's actions were intended to pressure him into minting $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens. The lawsuit raises questions about World Liberty's claims of decentralization and its potential status as a money transmitter under US regulations. 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 equally to other early investors who received tokens.