Tron founder Justin Sun has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with connections to the family of former U.S. President Donald Trump, claiming that the company improperly froze his $WLFI token holdings. The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, asserts that World Liberty's leadership engaged in an illicit scheme to seize Sun's assets and made fraudulent representations to him. Sun allegedly invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being approached by World Liberty's team in 2024, partly due to the project's ties to 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 became hostile towards him. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty made false statements about the rights of token holders and the governance of the $WLFI tokens, and that the company centralized control over its tokens despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance business. World Liberty is accused of modifying the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens without disclosing this change to investors. The complaint alleges that this modification was used to freeze Sun's tokens, which served to pressure him into minting $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin and to artificially inflate the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders.
The lawsuit also raises regulatory concerns, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may subject it to registration and anti-money laundering requirements as a money transmitter. Additionally, the complaint includes allegations that World Liberty made threats against Sun and his businesses, including a claim that Chase Herro, a co-founder of World Liberty, threatened to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and report him to U.S. authorities over allegedly inadequate know-your-customer documentation. Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation amicably and seeks equal treatment as other early investors who received tokens.