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 claims that World Liberty unfairly froze Sun's $WLFI token holdings, made false representations, and threatened him. According to the lawsuit, Sun 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 purported goal of promoting decentralized finance.
However, when Sun refused to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the USD1 stablecoin, World Liberty's attitude towards him allegedly became hostile. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the rights and freedoms associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about token holder governance and the ability to transact freely. It is also claimed that World Liberty exerted centralized control over its tokens, contrary to its decentralized finance claims.
In August 2025, World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI to introduce 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. The lawsuit argues that this modification enabled World Liberty to freeze Sun's tokens, which served to pressure him into minting $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin on the Tron blockchain and to artificially inflate the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders and treasury.
Additionally, the complaint alleges 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 under U.S. regulations.
The lawsuit also mentions 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. A spokesperson for World Liberty Financial declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks equal treatment as other early investors who received tokens.