Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency and stablecoin company backed by associates of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, claims that World Liberty Financial engaged in an illegal scheme to seize Sun's $WLFI tokens, which he purchased after being solicited by the company in 2024. The lawsuit also alleges that World Liberty made fraudulent representations and threatened Sun.
According to the lawsuit, Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens due to the project's potential to promote decentralized finance, an issue Sun cares deeply about, as well as the Trump family's involvement with the project. A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that World Liberty asked Sun to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the company's USD1 stablecoin. However, when Sun refused to invest on their terms, World Liberty's principals became hostile towards him.
The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty induced Sun to invest through fraudulent misrepresentations about the economic rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens. These misrepresentations include statements about token holder rights, governance rights, and the freedom to transact.
The lawsuit also claims that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance company, has centralized control over its tokens. According to the complaint, World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets. This modification was not disclosed to investors, and token holders had just approved a proposal to make a portion of the supply tradable. The complaint alleges that World Liberty's freezing of Sun's tokens served a dual purpose: pressuring him to mint $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin on his Tron blockchain and manipulating $WLFI's market price by preventing one of the largest holders from selling.
By locking up Sun's position, the complaint argues, World Liberty artificially propped up the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty founders and the company's corporate treasury. The lawsuit raises regulatory questions, as World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify the firm as a money transmitter under U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules.
The complaint also alleges that World Liberty made overt threats to Sun and his businesses, including a threat to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens if he did not ask for them to be burned. Another threat included a claim that the know-your-customer documentation submitted by Sun was inadequate, with a threat to report him to U.S. authorities. Parts of the lawsuit were redacted, with an attached filing citing a confidentiality provision.
Sun stated on social media that he had tried to resolve the situation in good faith and wants to be treated the same as other early investors who received tokens. He also expressed opposition to World Liberty's new governance proposal published on April 15.
Since Trump took office, Sun has visited the U.S. after previously avoiding the country, and was a guest at Trump's first memecoin dinner last year. Recently, Sun settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to pay a $10 million fine to resolve a case brought by the previous presidential administration.