Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has filed a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm linked to the family of former US President Donald Trump. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty froze Sun's $WLFI tokens and made fraudulent representations to him, in addition to threatening and defaming him. According to the lawsuit, Sun had invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being solicited by the World Liberty team in 2024, due in part to the project's association with the Trump family. However, when Sun refused to continue investing in 2025, World Liberty'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 project, and that the company had centralized control over its tokens despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance project. The lawsuit also alleges that World Liberty changed the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, which allowed the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this to investors. This modification was used to freeze Sun's tokens, which the lawsuit claims was done to pressure him into minting $200 million of World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens. The lawsuit raises regulatory questions about World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens, which may qualify the firm as a money transmitter subject to registration and anti-money laundering requirements.
Other allegations in the lawsuit 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.