Tron founder Justin Sun has taken legal action against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm with ties to the Trump family, alleging that the company froze his $WLFI token holdings without justification, made false representations, and issued threats. The lawsuit, filed recently, claims that World Liberty's actions constitute an 'illegal scheme to seize property' and that the company's leadership engaged in fraudulent behavior. According to the filing, Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens in 2024 after being solicited by the World Liberty team, partly due to the project's claimed support for decentralized finance and its connection to the Trump family.
However, when Sun refused to continue investing in 2025, including a request to mint the USD1 stablecoin, World Liberty's principals allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty made false statements about the rights of token holders, the governance of the project, and the freedom to transact. It also claims that the company has centralized control over its tokens, contrary to its decentralized finance claims.
World Liberty is accused of modifying the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing the company to freeze tokens without disclosing this change to investors. This modification allegedly enabled World Liberty to freeze Sun's tokens, pressuring him to mint $200 million of the USD1 stablecoin and manipulating the market price of $WLFI tokens.
The complaint argues that World Liberty's actions may have regulatory implications, potentially qualifying the firm as a money transmitter under U.S. rules. 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.