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 engaged in an illegal scheme to seize Sun's $WLFI tokens, made fraudulent misrepresentations, and threatened and defamed him.
According to the lawsuit, Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens after being solicited by the World Liberty team in 2024, partly due to the project's association with the Trump family. However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, World Liberty's leadership allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty induced Sun to invest through fraudulent misrepresentations about the economic rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens.
It is also alleged that World Liberty has centralized control over its tokens, contrary to its decentralized finance claims. The company is accused of changing the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing it to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this to investors. The complaint argues that World Liberty's actions served to pressure Sun into minting $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin on his Tron blockchain and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens. Furthermore, the lawsuit raises regulatory questions, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter, subjecting it to registration and anti-money laundering requirements.
Other allegations 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 seeks to be treated equally to other early investors who received tokens.