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 froze Sun's $WLFI token holdings without justification, made fraudulent claims, and engaged in threatening behavior towards 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 association with the Trump family and its purported goal of promoting decentralized finance. However, when Sun declined to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin, the company's attitude towards him allegedly turned hostile.
The lawsuit claims that World Liberty misled investors, including Sun, by making false statements about the rights and freedoms associated with holding $WLFI tokens. It also alleges that the company exercised centralized control over its tokens, contrary to its decentralized finance claims. In August 2025, World Liberty modified the smart contract governing $WLFI to include 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 company's USD1 stablecoin and artificially inflated the market price of $WLFI tokens held by the company's founders and treasury.
Furthermore, 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 US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules. The lawsuit also includes allegations of threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, against Sun and his businesses, including a claim that Herro threatened to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and report him to US authorities over allegedly inadequate know-your-customer documentation.
Portions of the lawsuit have been redacted, with Sun's team offering World Liberty the opportunity to decide whether these provisions should remain sealed. In a public post, Sun stated that he had attempted to resolve the situation amicably and seeks equal treatment as other early investors.
He also expressed opposition to a new governance proposal published by World Liberty on April 15.