Justin Sun, the creator of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the family of former US President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, alleges that World Liberty's leadership engaged in an unlawful scheme to seize Sun's $WLFI tokens, which he claims were purchased after being solicited by the company in 2024. Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens, reportedly due to the project's claims of promoting decentralized finance and its association with 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 allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the economic rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about token holder rights and governance. Sun's suit also alleges that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance business, exerted centralized control over its tokens.
The company modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing it to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this change to investors. The complaint argues that this modification enabled World Liberty to freeze Sun's tokens, serving a dual purpose: pressuring him to mint $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin and artificially propping up the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty founders and its corporate treasury. The lawsuit raises regulatory questions, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter under US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules.
Other allegations include threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and report him to US authorities. Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation amicably and seeks equal treatment as other early investors who received tokens.