Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has taken legal action 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 improperly froze Sun's holdings of $WLFI tokens, made false representations, and defamed 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 claimed support for 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 rights and benefits of purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about governance rights and the freedom to transact. It also alleges that the company has 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, which allowed the company to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this change to investors. The lawsuit argues that this move was used to pressure Sun into minting $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin on his Tron blockchain and to artificially inflate the market price of $WLFI tokens held by World Liberty's founders and treasury.
Furthermore, the complaint alleges that World Liberty's actions may have regulatory implications, potentially qualifying the firm as a money transmitter subject to 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 amicably but seeks equal treatment as other early investors who received tokens. He also expressed opposition to a new governance proposal published by World Liberty on April 15.