Justin Sun, the founder 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 alleges that World Liberty Financial froze Sun's $WLFI token holdings without justification, made false representations, and issued threats against him. According to the lawsuit, Sun had 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.
However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the USD1 stablecoin, World Liberty's attitude towards him allegedly became hostile. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty induced Sun to invest through deceptive statements about the economic rights associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens. It is also alleged 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 add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets without notifying investors or putting it to a governance vote. The complaint argues that this modification enabled World Liberty to freeze Sun's tokens, pressuring him to mint $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin and artificially inflating the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders. The lawsuit raises regulatory concerns, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter, subject to registration and anti-money laundering requirements. Additionally, the complaint alleges that World Liberty made explicit threats against Sun and his businesses, including a threat to burn his $WLFI tokens and report him to US authorities for allegedly inadequate know-your-customer documentation.
Sun has stated that he attempted to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks equal treatment as other early investors who received tokens.