Justin Sun, the creator of Tron, has initiated a lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency and stablecoin firm with connections to the family of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, claims that World Liberty unfairly locked up Sun's $WLFI holdings, made fraudulent representations, and threatened and defamed him. According to the lawsuit, World Liberty's leadership engaged in an illegal scheme to seize Sun's tokens, which he had purchased after being solicited by the company in 2024.
Sun invested $45 million in $WLFI tokens, partly due to the project's claims of promoting decentralized finance and its association with the Trump family. However, when it became clear that Sun would not continue investing in 2025, World Liberty's principals allegedly became hostile towards him. The lawsuit alleges that World Liberty made fraudulent misrepresentations about the economic rights and liberties associated with purchasing $WLFI tokens, including statements about token holders' rights and the freedom to transact.
Sun's suit also claims that World Liberty, despite presenting itself as a decentralized finance business, has centralized control over its tokens. The company allegedly modified the smart contract governing $WLFI in August 2025 to add a 'blacklisting' function, allowing 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 on his Tron blockchain and to manipulate the market price of $WLFI tokens.
The lawsuit raises regulatory questions, as World Liberty's ability to issue, freeze, and reassign tokens may qualify it as a money transmitter under U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rules. Other allegations include threats made by World Liberty's co-founder, Chase Herro, to burn Sun's $WLFI tokens and to report him to U.S.
authorities. Sun has stated that he tried to resolve the situation in good faith and seeks to be treated the same as other early investors who received tokens.