Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the family of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty Financial froze Sun's $WLFI tokens without justification, made false representations, and threatened him.
According to the lawsuit, Sun had invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being approached by World Liberty's team in 2024, partly due to the project's connection to the Trump family and its claims of promoting decentralized finance. However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the USD1 stablecoin, World Liberty's attitude towards him became hostile. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty misled investors about the rights and freedoms associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about governance rights and the ability to transact freely. It is also alleged that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance project, has centralized control over its tokens.
In August 2025, World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this change to investors or putting it to a governance vote. This modification allegedly enabled World Liberty to freeze Sun's tokens, which served the dual purpose of pressuring him to mint $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin on the Tron blockchain and artificially propping up the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders and treasury. The lawsuit also raises regulatory concerns, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens could qualify it as a money transmitter under U.S.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules, subjecting it to registration and anti-money laundering requirements. Additionally, the lawsuit includes allegations of threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, against Sun and his businesses, including a threat to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and to report him to U.S. authorities over allegedly inadequate know-your-customer documentation.
Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks to be treated equally to other early investors who received tokens. He also expressed opposition to a new governance proposal published by World Liberty on April 15.