Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, has filed 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 unfairly froze Sun's $WLFI token holdings, made false representations, and threatened and defamed him. According to the lawsuit, Sun had 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 refused to continue investing in 2025, World Liberty's principals allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit claims that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the economic rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about token holder rights and the freedom to transact.
Sun's suit also alleges that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance project, has centralized control over its tokens. The company allegedly modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, which allowed it to freeze tokens in specific wallets without disclosing this to investors. The complaint argues that World Liberty's freezing of Sun's tokens served to pressure him into minting $200 million of the company's USD1 stablecoin and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens. The lawsuit raises regulatory questions, suggesting that World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter under US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules.
Other allegations in the complaint 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 wants to be treated the same as other early investors who received tokens.